Personal use of brand name or generic drugs among health care professionals and general patients in Taiwan: A study of oral hypoglycemic agents

• Main Authors: Cang, Wei Yuan, 張瑋淵
• Other Authors: Hsu-Shan Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/01889154310702402251

碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 藥學研究所 === 99 === Background- There is more debate concerning the equivalence and efficacy between brand-name and generic drugs. It is generally believed that asymmetric health information on medical therapy exists between patients and health care professionals. Objective- This study aims to investigate whether health care professionals with diabetes mellitus prefer to be prescribed brand-name or generic drugs compared to patients with diabetes mellitus. Further, propensity of brand-name or generic drugs in subgroup of health care professionals with diabetes mellitus will be analyzed. Moreover, compliance and persistence between generic and brand-name drugs will be discussed in this article. Research designs- A retrospective cohort study on National Health Insurance database in Taiwan was conducted. The cohort comprised patients with first time diagnosis of typeⅡdiabetes mellitus and been prescribed with oral hypoglycemic agents between 1998/01/01 and 2008/12/31. Subjects- The study cohort was divided into two groups: health professional group (n=286) and general patient group (n=46,564). Results- The result revealed that health professional group had higher use of brand-name drugs than that of general patients. (Crude OR: 1.64, 95%CI: 1.31-2.07; Adjusted OR: 1.37, 95%CI: 0.99-1.88). Subgroup analysis showed that pharmacists (Adjusted OR: 2.78, 95%CI: 1.05-7.36), physicians (Adjusted OR: 1.68, 95%CI: 0.99-2.85) had higher tendency to use brand name drugs. The difference of medication persistence between before-exchange and after- exchange is significant in Metformin group (P<0.01). Patients receiving Glimepiride had no such effect (P=0.19). Conclusion- This study provides new empirical evidence that there is a trend for health professionals with diabetes mellitus toward brand name drug use. Pharmacists and physicians were higher possibility toward brand name drug use in health professional subgroup.