gms | German Medical Science

11. Jahrestagung 2004 der GAA

Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie

30.09. bis 01.10.2004, Jena

Article

Send article

Monitoring the drug treatment of Hormone Therapy in Menopause in the light of new evidence

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker B. Deitermann - Bremen University, Centre for Social Policy Research, Drug Utilization Research Unit
  • G. Glaeske - Bremen University, Centre for Social Policy Research, Drug Utilization Research Unit

Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelanwendungsforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie (GAA) e.V.. 11. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie (GAA) e.V.. Jena, 30.09.-01.10.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04gaa04

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gaa2004/04gaa04.shtml

Published: September 30, 2004

© 2004 Deitermann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

Context

The main reasons for prescribing hormone replacement therapy (HT) in the past were: relief of menopausal symptoms, prevention or management of osteoporosis and prevention of chronic diseases. Since the publication of the Women s Health Initiative (WHI) randomised controlled trial in July 2002 the recommendations of HT in menopause have changed. In Germany there is no national database for the monitoring of drug treatment existing. However, data of Statutory Health Insurance Companies can be consulted to evaluate drug treatment. Approx. 90 % of the German population is insured through the System of Statutory Health Insurance.

Objectives

The aim of the study is to evaluate whether drug prescription patterns for menopausal hormone therapy in Germany have changed between 2001 and 2003 since new evidence and new recommendations for HT were published.

Methods

Personal related prescription data of 1.4 million insured persons of the Gmuender Ersatzkasse (GEK) were analysed. The study population comprised women aged 40 years and older, who were at least insured between January 2001 and December 2003. Prescriptions of one or more estrogen or estrogen-progestin combination preparations between January 2001 and December 2003 were classified as „treated with hormones". On the basis of insurance data trends of prevalence, doses and duration of drug treatment before and after publication of the new results concerning hormone therapy will be described.

Result

Most of the preparations were prescribed for women aged 50 to 65 years. In 2001, 41 % of these insured women received a hormone therapy. A downward trend already observed in 2002 went on in 2003. The prescription rate for women aged 50 to 65 years was 36.7% in 2002 and run to 30.6 % in 2003. Although a downward trend could be observed, the changes regarding the prescription rate were not as expected when considering the results of the WHI-study. Further results of prescription analysis from 2001 to 2003 will be presented.

Conclusions

The data analysis makes clear that the frequency of drug prescriptions have not changed sufficiently. In the light of new evidence strategies have to be developed in order to change drug prescription patterns more effectively.

Conflict of interest: none