Use of oral glucose-lowering drugs in a healthcare area

Abstract

Background: The therapeutic arsenal of hypoglycaemic drugs has been increased by the commercialization of new molecules in recent years. The main objective of this study was to know the trend of use of this group of drugs in a healthcare area.

Methods: The data was obtained through an electronic medical prescription billing computer application that contains all the information on the consumption of prescription drugs. The last seven years were analyzed in a healthcare area that covers a population of 85 thousand inhabitants and the defined daily dose (DDD) per inhabitant per day was used as a measurement variable.

Results: In our health area, an increasing and constant use of antidiabetic drugs was observed from a value of 55.62 DHD per inhabitant per day in 2014 to a value of 65.04 in 2020. Throughout the period studied, oral hypoglycemic drug combinations and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors were the therapeutic subgroups that experienced growth greater than 50%.

Conclusions: The consumption of hypoglycemic agents experienced a notable growth in the period analyzed, mainly at the expense of new therapeutic groups and new commercialized molecules.