ArticleInternational journal of clinical pharmacy2026
Drug class duplication patterns among South African middle-aged adults: findings from a medicine claims database.
Article in International journal of clinical pharmacy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionMiddle-aged adults (45-64 years), who constitute a large proportion of the population, are at risk of potentially inappropriate medicine (PIM) prescribing due to their high prevalence of multimorbidity. Drug class duplication, the concurrent prescription of two or more medicines from the same pharmacological class, is a commonly reported PIM criterion in studies using the PRescribing Optimally in Middle-aged People's Treatments (PROMPT) criteria.
aimTo determine the prevalence of drug class duplication, stratified by sex and age group, and its associated factors among middle-aged adults using a South African pharmaceutical benefit management (PBM) company's medicine claims database.
methodA cross-sectional study was conducted using data from 1 January 2023-31 December 2023. Drug class duplication was assessed across 14 pharmacological drug classes. Prevalence of drug class duplications was analysed by sex and age group, with associations tested using Pearson's chi-square test. Spearman's correlation coefficient (r
resultsOf the 195,446 patients analysed (51.9% female; mean age 53.69 years [standard deviation (SD) 5.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 53.665-53.713]), 48.8% experienced one or more drug class duplication. Duplication was similar between sexes (p = 0.1685) and higher in older age groups (p < 0.0001, Cramér's V = 0.2). The most prevalent drug class duplications were 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) (n = 36,887, 18.9%); non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (n = 30,829, 15.8%); angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (n = 25,646, 13.1%); angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) (n = 22,411, 11.5%); calcium-channel blockers (CCBs) (n = 15,716, 8.0%); selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (n = 12,139, 6.2%); and beta-receptor blockers (β-blockers) (n = 11,577, 5.9%). Strong correlations were observed between drug class duplication and the number of Chronic Disease List (CDL) conditions per patient (r
conclusionDrug class duplication was common, highlighting that targeted interventions may be useful to improve patient safety.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.