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Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK

BACKGROUND: Thyroid hormone replacement is one of the most commonly prescribed and cost effective treatments for a chronic disease. There have been recent changes in community prescribing policies in many areas of the UK that have changed patient access to necessary medications. This study aimed to...

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Autores principales: Mitchell, Anna L, Hickey, Bryan, Hickey, Janis L, Pearce, Simon HS
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2683823/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19432950
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-132
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author Mitchell, Anna L
Hickey, Bryan
Hickey, Janis L
Pearce, Simon HS
author_facet Mitchell, Anna L
Hickey, Bryan
Hickey, Janis L
Pearce, Simon HS
author_sort Mitchell, Anna L
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Thyroid hormone replacement is one of the most commonly prescribed and cost effective treatments for a chronic disease. There have been recent changes in community prescribing policies in many areas of the UK that have changed patient access to necessary medications. This study aimed to provide a picture of thyroid hormone usage in the UK and to survey patient opinion about current community prescribing policies for levothyroxine. METHODS: Data on community prescriptions for thyroid hormones in England between 1998 and 2007, provided by the Department of Health, were collated and analysed. A survey of UK members of a patient support organisation (the British Thyroid Foundation) who were taking levothyroxine was carried out. RESULTS: The amount of prescribed thyroid hormones used in England has more than doubled, from 7 to almost 19 million prescriptions, over the last 10 years. The duration of prescriptions has reduced from 60 to 45 days, on average over the same time. Two thousand five hundred and fifty one responses to the patient survey were received. Thirty eight percent of levothyroxine users reported receiving prescriptions of 28 days' duration. 59% of respondents reported being dissatisfied with 28-day prescribing. CONCLUSION: Amongst users of levothyroxine, there is widespread patient dissatisfaction with 28-day prescription duration. Analysis of the full costs of 28-day dispensing balanced against the potential savings of reduced wastage of thyroid medications, suggests that this is unlikely to be an economically effective public health policy.
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spelling pubmed-26838232009-05-19 Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK Mitchell, Anna L Hickey, Bryan Hickey, Janis L Pearce, Simon HS BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Thyroid hormone replacement is one of the most commonly prescribed and cost effective treatments for a chronic disease. There have been recent changes in community prescribing policies in many areas of the UK that have changed patient access to necessary medications. This study aimed to provide a picture of thyroid hormone usage in the UK and to survey patient opinion about current community prescribing policies for levothyroxine. METHODS: Data on community prescriptions for thyroid hormones in England between 1998 and 2007, provided by the Department of Health, were collated and analysed. A survey of UK members of a patient support organisation (the British Thyroid Foundation) who were taking levothyroxine was carried out. RESULTS: The amount of prescribed thyroid hormones used in England has more than doubled, from 7 to almost 19 million prescriptions, over the last 10 years. The duration of prescriptions has reduced from 60 to 45 days, on average over the same time. Two thousand five hundred and fifty one responses to the patient survey were received. Thirty eight percent of levothyroxine users reported receiving prescriptions of 28 days' duration. 59% of respondents reported being dissatisfied with 28-day prescribing. CONCLUSION: Amongst users of levothyroxine, there is widespread patient dissatisfaction with 28-day prescription duration. Analysis of the full costs of 28-day dispensing balanced against the potential savings of reduced wastage of thyroid medications, suggests that this is unlikely to be an economically effective public health policy. BioMed Central 2009-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC2683823/ /pubmed/19432950 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-132 Text en Copyright © 2009 Mitchell et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mitchell, Anna L
Hickey, Bryan
Hickey, Janis L
Pearce, Simon HS
Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title_full Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title_fullStr Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title_full_unstemmed Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title_short Trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the UK
title_sort trends in thyroid hormone prescribing and consumption in the uk
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2683823/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19432950
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-132
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