Artikel
Monitoring the drug treatment of Hormone Therapy in Menopause in the light of new evidence
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Autoren
Veröffentlicht: | 30. September 2004 |
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Gliederung
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