Therapeutic traditions, patient socioeconomic characteristics and physicians' early new drug prescribing--a multilevel analysis of rosuvastatin prescription in south Sweden.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role that both patient and outpatient factors related to health care practice (HCP) play in physicians' early adoption of rosuvastatin.


METHODS
Generalized estimation equations (GEEs) and alternating logistic regression (ALR) with pair-wise odds ratios (PWORs) were used to measure similarities in rosuvastatin prescription within HCPs for all individuals with statin prescriptions in Skåne region, Sweden.


RESULTS
After 12 months, 53% of the HCPs had adopted the new statin. Rosuvastatin prescriptions co-occurred within certain HCPs 3.56 times more often than one would have expected based on a random distribution. Private HCPs had four times higher probability of prescribing rosuvastatin than public HCPs.


CONCLUSIONS
Contextual characteristics of the HCP seem to be relevant for understanding physicians' motivation to adopt rosuvastatin. Moreover, our study reveals inequity in health care as the socioeconomic status of the patients appears to influence the prescribing behavior of the physicians irrespective of medical reasons.
Social Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Henrik.Ohlsson@med.lu.se
Henrik
H
Ohlsson
Basile
B
Chaix
Juan
J
Merlo
D000368:Aged; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005464:Fluorobenzenes / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010045:Outpatients; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011743:Pyrimidines / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000068718:Rosuvastatin Calcium; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013449:Sulfonamides / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors
D005464:Fluorobenzenes; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D011743:Pyrimidines; D013449:Sulfonamides; D000068718:Rosuvastatin Calcium