OBJECTIVES To determine whether chronically ill patients have gaps in knowledge about their prescription drug coverage and establish the relationship between gaps and medication cost problems. DESIGN Nationwide, cross-sectional survey. SETTING Nationwide survey conducted via the Internet. PARTICIPANTS Three thousand one hundred nineteen adults aged 50 and older (1,400 of whom were aged > ...

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of prescription medication misuse among adolescents with severe mental health problems in Ontario, Canada, and to explore some of the factors that influence the misuse of prescription medication. Data were obtained from the Resident Assessment Instrument for Mental Health. A total of 2,677 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years wh...

BACKGROUND Despite increasing knowledge about the limited effectiveness and severe adverse effects, the prescription rate of psychotropic medications in frail elderly persons remains high. Prescriptions are mainly made to control behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, although factors associated with prescriptions are rarely reported. However, such information is a prerequisite to d...

BACKGROUND Advanced computing capabilities and novel visual analytics tools now allow us to move beyond the traditional cross-sectional summaries to analyze longitudinal prescription patterns and the impact of study design decisions. For example, design decisions regarding gaps and overlaps in prescription fill data are necessary for measuring adherence using prescription claims data. However, ...

Interruptions and distractions are significant factors in medication errors in the pharmacy environment. Although only a small percentage of these errors cause harm, medication errors need to be minimised in an effort to improve patient safety. In an attempt to reduce the number of interruptions, the inpatient pharmacy at Auckland District Health Board plans to implement an information system t...

OBJECTIVES To investigate patterns of early repeat prescriptions and treatment switching over an 11-year period to estimate differences in the cost of medication wastage, dispensing fees and prescriber time for short (<60 days) and long (≥60 days) prescription lengths from the perspective of the National Health Service in the UK. SETTING Retrospective, multiple cohort study of primary care pr...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether specific design interventions (changes in the user interface (UI)) of an electronic health record (EHR) medication module are associated with an increase or decrease in the incidence of contradictions between the structured and narrative components of electronic prescriptions (internal prescription discrepancies). MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a retrospecti...

OBJECTIVES To understand the extent to which medication adherence was related to diversion of prescription analgesics. DESIGN Cross-sectional analyses of data from the College Life Study, a prospective study of young adults. SETTING Participants were originally sampled as incoming first-time first-year college students from one large public university in the Mid-Atlantic United States. PA...