Table 1.
Summary of the number of studies included for analysis of each utilization variable
| Variable | No. of studies with data for variable | No. of studies eligible for analysis | No. of studies that could not be included and why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 31 | 26 | 5 (age was reported as prevalence proportion (N = 2) and DDD/1000/daya (N = 2) instead of per patient; extreme outlier (N = 1))* |
| Sex | 63 | 60 | 3 (sex was reported as prevalence proportion (N = 1), DDD/1000/day (N = 1), and prescription counts (N = 1) and not per patient) |
| Ethnicity | 10 | 9 | 1 (ethnicity was reported as DDD/1000/day (N = 1) and not per patient) |
| Medication types | 35 | 31 | 4 (PPI types were reported as million DDD (N = 2), DDD/1000/day (N = 1), and prescription counts (N = 1) and not per patient) |
| Dose | 18 | 15 | 3 (DDD/1000/day (N = 1), TSDDb (N = 1), medicine counts (N = 1)) |
| Duration | 22 | 22 | |
| Indication | 32 | 32 |
aDefined daily dose per 1000 inhabitants per day
btotal standardized daily dose
*Lassalle et al. [48]