Prescriptions of recommended heart failure medications can be correlated with patient and physician characteristics.
BACKGROUND
Translating the findings from heart failure drug trials into clinical practice has been shown to take time. For the generation of a primary care guideline that takes preferences of general practitioners (GPs) and characteristics of their patients into account, it is necessary to identify the associations between patient and physician characteristics with the prescription of the recommended drugs.


METHODS
We searched for patients with chronic heart failure in the electronic patient records of 14 GPs. In multivariate analyses, we examined the prognostic value of patient and physician characteristics for the prescriptions.


RESULTS
In the 708 identified patients with chronic heart failure, prescription rates for angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, diuretics, digitalis and aldosterone antagonists were 50%, 39%, 56%, 35%, and 4%, respectively. On the patient level, age, disease severity, comorbidities and concomitant drug intake were differently related to the prescriptions. On the physician level, age, years of clinical experience and organisation of the practice itself played a differentiating role. conclusion: Our study demonstrates associations between patient and physician characteristics with the prescription of the recommended drugs that should be taken into account to translate guideline recommendations for application in general practice.
Koschack
J
J
Department of General Practice, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. jkoscha@gwdg.de
Jung
H H
HH
Scherer
M
M
Kochen
M M
MM
D000368:Aged; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055553:Prescription Drugs
D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D055553:Prescription Drugs