Increased dispensing of prescription medications in Australia early in the COVID‐19 pandemic

Mian, Mustafa; Sreedharan, Subhashaan; Giles, Sarah

doi:10.5694/mja2.51029

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…Other studies have also reported increased use of antibiotics in the community in both LMICs 43 44 and high income countries. 45 Pharmacy technicians were more likely than pharmacists, to report selling antibiotics and other prescription-only medicines. This finding is consistent with a study (pre-COVID19) from Abu Dhabi showing that pharmacy technicians are more likely to sell antibiotics to their clients compared to pharmacists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The response to COVID-19 among drug retail outlets in Indonesia: A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Mashuri

Wulandari

Khan

et al. 2022

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The response to COVID-19 among drug retail outlets in Indonesia: A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Mashuri

Wulandari

Khan

et al. 2022

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

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“…The level shift represents an immediate change that was sustained for the remainder of the study period. We included the temporary change in March due to reported increases in dispensing, likely due to stockpiling behaviour at the start of mitigation measures 21,22 . To control for autocorrelation and seasonality, we used seasonal autoregressive integrative moving average (ARIMA) models.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in antibiotic prescribing following COVID‐19 restrictions: Lessons for post‐pandemic antibiotic stewardship

Gillies

Burgner

Ivancic

et al. 2021

Brit J Clinical Pharma

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Aims: Public health responses to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission have profoundly affected the epidemiology and management of other infections. We examined the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on antibiotic dispensing in Australia. Methods:We used national claims data to investigate antibiotic dispensing trends from November 2015 to October 2020 and whether changes reflected reductions in primary care consultations. We used interrupted time series analysis to quantify changes in monthly antibiotic dispensing and face-to-face and telehealth GP consultations and examined changes by recipient age, pharmacy State and prescriber specialty.Results: Over the study period, an estimated 19 921 370 people had 125 495 137 antibiotic dispensings, 71% prescribed by GPs. Following COVID-19 restrictions, we observed a sustained 36% (95% CI: 33-40%) reduction in antibiotic dispensings from April 2020. Antibiotics recommended for managing respiratory tract infections showed large reductions (range 51-69%), whereas those recommended for nonrespiratory infections were unchanged. Dispensings prescribed by GPs decreased from 63.5 per 1000 population for April-October 2019 to 37.0 per 1000 for April-October 2020. Total GP consultation rates remained stable, but from April 2020, 31% of consultations were telehealth. Conclusion:In a setting with a low COVID-19 incidence, restrictions were associated with a substantial reduction in community dispensings of antibiotics primarily used to treat respiratory infections, coincident with reported reductions in respiratory viral infections. Our findings are informative for post-pandemic antimicrobial stewardship and highlight the potential to reduce inappropriate prescribing by GPs and specialists for respiratory viral infections.

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“…The large sample size also permitted direct comparison of face-to-face and telehealth consultations during the same time period. In addition, the study period extends beyond the early phase of the pandemic and captures two distinct waves encompassing the middle of the first wave in both NSW and Victoria and the second wave in Victoria alone (late-June to early-September in 2020), however, it did not capture the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic when there may have been increases in medication prescribing 33 due to consumer stockpiling. The study is limited to the context of general practice in two Australian states within a national COVID-19 policy environment and may not be generalisable to other settings or beyond pandemic circumstances.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medication prescribing in face-to-face versus telehealth consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australian general practice: a retrospective observational study

et al. 2021

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BackgroundThere has been a precipitous rise telehealth use in general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding differences between face-to-face and telehealth consulting is an important component for planning the future use of telehealth services beyond the pandemic. However, there is limited evidence on whether telehealth consulting impacts medication prescribing under pandemic circumstances.AimTo compare medication prescribing in face-to-face versus telehealth consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australian general practice.Design and SettingThis multisite, retrospective observational study used de-identified routinely collected electronic health data extracted from 806 general practices in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW), Australia between April-December 2020.MethodThe primary outcome measure was whether at least one medication was prescribed following a telehealth or face-to-face consultation. Data are reported by medication and for each of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System level one groups. The secondary outcome measure was first-time prescribing. Telehealth included both telephone and video consultations.ResultsA total of 13,608,216 consultations satisfied the inclusion criteria (61% face-to-face and 39% telehealth). Most telehealth consultations were conducted via telephone (97.8%). Overall, 39.3% of face-to-face and 33.0% of telehealth consultations prescribed at least one medication– a statistically significant difference (adjusted OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.379–1.381). The prescribing rate was greater for face-to-face vs telehealth consultations for all drug groups except ATC level 1N (nervous system).ConclusionUnder COVID-19 restrictions in the states of Victoria and NSW, Australia, medication prescribing was higher in face-to-face consultations when compared to telehealth consultations in the study population.

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Increased dispensing of prescription medications in Australia early in the COVID‐19 pandemic

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

The response to COVID-19 among drug retail outlets in Indonesia: A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices

The response to COVID-19 among drug retail outlets in Indonesia: A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Changes in antibiotic prescribing following COVID‐19 restrictions: Lessons for post‐pandemic antibiotic stewardship

Medication prescribing in face-to-face versus telehealth consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australian general practice: a retrospective observational study

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