Comparing reporting rates of adverse events between drugs with adjustment for year of marketing and secular trends in total reporting.
The Food and Drug Administration has collected spontaneous reports on adverse events (AE) from manufacturers and individuals. These data provide useful information on the safety of marketed drugs. Due to many unique characteristics of this reporting system, the information is difficult to evaluate. Incidence rates for specific adverse events and drug combinations cannot be estimated. However, reporting rates (number of reports per market share) based on prescriptions can be computed. These reporting rates provide signals of serious adverse experience that may deserve attention. When the ratio of reporting rates is used for the comparison of two drugs of the same drug class, adjustments are needed for the marketing year and secular trends of all-drug-all-AE reporting. The Mantel-Haenszel procedure is used to combine the multiyear data into one summary statistic. Application of this analysis is illustrated on reports of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation, and ulcer associated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as given in Rossi et al. (12).
Tsong
Y
Y
Division of Biometrics, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA.
D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000009:adverse effects; D004061:Diflunisal / Q000009:adverse effects; D004347:Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D010894:Piroxicam / Q000009:adverse effects; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration
D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D010894:Piroxicam; D004061:Diflunisal