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. 2013 Apr 5;27(5):308–312. [Article in Spanish] doi: 10.1016/S0212-6567(01)79372-9

Validez de un indicador de calidad de prescripción farmacológica en pacientes con hiperlipemia

Validity of an indicator of the quality of pharmacological prescription in patients with hyperlipaemia

MI Fernández San Martín a,*, C López Bilbao b, E Escortell Mayor c, T Sanz Cuesta d, L Fidalgo García e, C Rodríguez Escolar f; grupo VICAF*
PMCID: PMC7681371  PMID: 11333549

Abstract

Objectives

The computer system for billing prescriptions (SIFAR in Spanish) enables indicators to be extracted for the study and follow-up of the use of medicines in the INSALUD primary care areas. Concretely, we studied the indicator referring to pensioners’ consumption of lipid-lowering drugs (PCLL), not validated, and whose value is expected to drop as quality increases. The objective was to calculate the correlation of the indicator of prescription of lipid-lowering drugs on the SIFAR with the proportion of lipid-lowerers prescribed correctly for pensioners (PCP).

Design

A descriptive study of correlation between two indicators of drug prescription.

Setting

Four health districts in Madrid.

Participants

The prescriptions of 49 general practitioners, chosen at random on the basis of three strata defined by the value of the indicator, were studied. Each doctor filled out a protocol of data for each pensioner patient to whom he/she prescribed a lipid-lowerer during the study period.

Measurements and main results

The PCLL and PCP indicators were compared through the correlation of Spearman. 6,779 prescriptions for 1,125 patients were collected from the 49 participating doctors. The mean percentage of lipid-lowerers correctly prescribed was 31.9%, figure that rose to 77.5% when the LDL value was not specified. The correlation between the PCLL and the PCP was near zero.

Conclusions

The PCLL indicator of the SIFAR does not discriminate quality in lipid-lowering drug prescription to people over 64.

Key words: Quality indicators, Prescriptions, Drugs statistics and numerical data, Primary health care

Footnotes

Proyecto financiado con la ayuda de investigación FIS 96/0005.

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