Table 1.

Characteristics of patients at first index prescription for antihypertensive, lipid-lowering or hypoglycemic treatment.

Variable	Branded anti-hypertensive (N = 427,641)	Generic anti-hypertensive (N = 558,508)	Branded lipid-lowering (N = 21,665)	Generic lipid-lowering (N = 25,694)	Branded hypo-glycemic (N = 101,045)	Generic hypo-glycemic (N = 99,993)
Age (years), mean (standard deviation)	64.5 (15.4)	63.3 (14.5)	63.0 (12.8)	62.4 (12.5)	65.0 (13.9)	62.7 (13.5)
Sex: female	54.3%	54.5%	50.3%	54.3%	49.5%	50.2%
Copayment waiver	34.2%	29.9%	30.6%	26.3%	41.1%	38.3%
Hospitalization (ending in last 180 days)	30.0%	19.9%	23.0%	18.1%	26.2%	18.7%
Hospitalization >14 days (ending in last 14 days)	7.3%	2.5%	3.7%	2.0%	5.7%	2.0%
Hospitalization >14 days (ending in last 180 days)	10.8%	5.4%	6.9%	4.6%	9.1%	4.9%
Index year:
2007	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.4%	1.0%	0.7%
2008	10.1%	9.1%	1.4%	4.5%	11.2%	8.2%
2009	22.4%	22.0%	33.3%	16.9%	22.4%	18.4%
2010	27.0%	24.9%	28.1%	35.5%	25.6%	25.7%
2011	20.6%	23.3%	22.1%	25.4%	22.2%	25.4%
2012	19.2%	20.1%	15.0%	17.3%	17.6%	21.5%
Specialty of prescriber:
General practitioner	67.7%	78.5%	68.9%	75.4%	77.5%	81.7%
Internal medicine specialist	11.6%	13.3%	12.8%	15.5%	9.7%	10.4%
Hospital	9.8%	3.7%	10.2%	3.7%	5.7%	2.8%
Other	10.8%	4.6%	8.1%	5.4%	7.1%	5.2%
Recent myo-cardial infarction	2.5%	0.6%	3.8%	1.1%	0.9%	0.3%
Recent cerebro-vascular event	2.3%	1.1%	2.3%	1.6%	1.6%	0.6%
Any diagnosis in group of endocrine, nutritional or metabolic diseases or in group of diseases of circulatory system	33.0%	16.6%	25.3%	15.5%	28.0%	15.5%
Previous use of antihypertensive, lipid-lowering or hypoglycemic medicines	67.5%	64.1%	73.0%	69.0%	81.3%	76.4%
Previous use of injectable insulins	1.9%	1.4%	2.0%	1.4%	3.2%	2.5%
Previous use of oral hypoglycemic drugs	12.7%	11.5%	14.6%	13.0%	39.2%	21.6%