- Title
- Studies using australia's pharmaceutical benefits scheme data for pharmacoepidemiological research: a systematic review of the published literature (1987-2013)
- Creator
- Pearson, Sallie-Anne; Pesa, Nicole; Langton, Julia M.; Drew, Annabelle; Faedo, Margaret; Robertson, Jane
- Relation
- Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety Vol. 24, Issue 5, p. 447-455
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pds.3756
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Purpose: Research using dispensing claims is used increasingly to study post-market medicines use and outcomes. The purpose of this review is to catalogue more than 25years of published literature using Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) dispensing records. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE and Embase and conducted author searches for studies published from 1987 to 2013. Independent reviewers screened abstracts of 3209 articles and reviewed 264 full-text manuscripts. Included studies used PBS dispensing data to measure patterns and/or outcomes of prescribed medicines use or dispensing claims to derive a proxy for a specific disease cohort or health outcome. Results: Of the 228 studies identified, 106 used PBS claims only (56 using claims-level data and 50 using individual-level data) and 63 studies linked individual-level PBS claims to other health data. Most commonly, studies examined trends in drug utilisation (33%), clinician and patient practices (26%), drug use and outcomes (18%) and evaluations of intervention impacts (17%). Sixty-two percent of studies using individual-level data were based on a subset of elderly Australians. Most studies focused on drug classes acting on the nervous system (36%), cardiovascular system (15%) and alimentary tract (11%). Few studies examined prescribed medicines use in children and pregnant women. Conclusions: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme claims represent a significant resource to examine Australia's billion-dollar annual investment in prescribed medicines. The body of research is growing and has increased in complexity over time. Australia has great potential to undertake world-class, whole-of-population pharmacoepidemiological studies. Recent investment in data linkage infrastructure will significantly enhance these opportunities.
- Subject
- pharmacoepidemiology; observational studies; drug utilization; prescription databases; record-linkage
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1338126
- Identifier
- uon:27972
- Identifier
- ISSN:1053-8569
- Language
- eng
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