| Title |
Prescription duration and treatment episodes in oral glucocorticoid users: application of the parametric waiting time distribution
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Clinical Epidemiology, November 2017
|
| DOI | 10.2147/clep.s148671 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Kristina Laugesen, Henrik Støvring, Jesper Hallas, Anton Pottegård, Jens Otto Lunde Jørgensen, Henrik Toft Sørensen, Irene Petersen |
| Abstract |
Glucocorticoids are widely used medications. In many pharmacoepidemiological studies, duration of individual prescriptions and definition of treatment episodes are important issues. However, many data sources lack this information. We aimed to estimate duration of individual prescriptions for oral glucocorticoids and to describe continuous treatment episodes using the parametric waiting time distribution. We used Danish nationwide registries to identify all prescriptions for oral glucocorticoids during 1996-2014. We applied the parametric waiting time distribution to estimate duration of individual prescriptions each year by estimating the 80th, 90th, 95th and 99th percentiles for the interarrival distribution. These corresponded to the time since last prescription during which 80%, 90%, 95% and 99% of users presented a new prescription for redemption. We used the Kaplan-Meier survival function to estimate length of first continuous treatment episodes by assigning estimated prescription duration to each prescription and thereby create treatment episodes from overlapping prescriptions. We identified 5,691,985 prescriptions issued to 854,429 individuals of whom 351,202 (41%) only redeemed 1 prescription in the whole study period. The 80th percentile for prescription duration ranged from 87 to 120 days, the 90th percentile from 116 to 150 days, the 95th percentile from 147 to 181 days, and the 99th percentile from 228 to 259 days during 1996-2014. Based on the 80th, 90th, 95th and 99th percentiles of prescription duration, the median length of continuous treatment was 113, 141, 170 and 243 days, respectively. Our method and results may provide an important framework for future pharmacoepidemiological studies. The choice of which percentile of the interarrival distribution to apply as prescription duration has an impact on the level of misclassification. Use of the 80th percentile provides a measure of drug exposure that is specific, while the 99th percentile provides a sensitive measure. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| France | 1 | 25% |
| Denmark | 1 | 25% |
| Unknown | 2 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 2 | 50% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 25% |
| Members of the public | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 20 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 20 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 6 | 30% |
| Researcher | 6 | 30% |
| Professor | 2 | 10% |
| Other | 1 | 5% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 1 | 5% |
| Unknown | 3 | 15% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 6 | 30% |
| Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 3 | 15% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 2 | 10% |
| Social Sciences | 1 | 5% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 0 | 0% |
| Unknown | 7 | 35% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 November 2017.
All research outputs
#15,109,521
of 25,287,709 outputs
Outputs from Clinical Epidemiology
#413
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Outputs of similar age
#175,007
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Outputs of similar age from Clinical Epidemiology
#15
of 24 outputs
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