1. Trends in diabetes medication prescribing from 2018 to 2021: A cross-sectional analysis.
- Author
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Riad J, Abdelmalek F, Ivers N, and Tadrous M
- Subjects
- Humans, Cross-Sectional Studies, Canada epidemiology, Drug Prescriptions statistics & numerical data, Diabetes Mellitus drug therapy, Diabetes Mellitus epidemiology, Practice Patterns, Physicians' trends, Practice Patterns, Physicians' statistics & numerical data, Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors therapeutic use, Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2 Inhibitors therapeutic use, SARS-CoV-2, Pandemics, Sulfonylurea Compounds therapeutic use, Insulin therapeutic use, COVID-19 epidemiology, Hypoglycemic Agents therapeutic use
- Abstract
Several new classes of medications for diabetes have recently become available newer medication classes have been increasing in use. It is unclear how their utilization varied across provinces and how the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected these trends. Our objective was to investigate Canada-wide and province-specific trends in diabetes medication dispensed by drug class over time, while also examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on diabetes medication dispensing. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional analysis study. Data were obtained from IQVIA's CompuScript database for Canada-wide prescription dispensing patterns in primary care from January 2018 to December 2021. Drug classes of interest were biguanides dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors, sulfonylurea's, insulins, sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. We examined trends before and after the onset of the pandemic with special attention to changes during periods of high COVID-19 activity. Most drug classes displayed a stable number of prescriptions each month throughout, except for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, which demonstrated a consistent pattern of increased dispensing. Sodium-glucose co-transporter inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists exhibited the greatest growth over the examined period, of 7.9% and 5.0% increases, respectively. For sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, Prince Edward Island (4.0%) displayed the greatest growth while Ontario showed the least (2.5%). For glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor analogs, Saskatchewan (11.3%) displayed the greatest growth and Newfoundland the least (4.5%). The pandemic did not impact overall dispensing trends. However, spikes in COVID-19 cases corresponded to changes in dispensing for most drug classes. Important variations across Canada in guideline-recommended medication classes seems to be increasing over time. This is likely due to differing formulary listing and access to drug coverages. If so, future research could explore national formulary harmonization across Canada and health outcomes for patients with diabetes., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Riad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
- Published
- 2024
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