Adoption of New Pharmacotherapeutic Regimens: Analysis of Physician Prescribing for Peptic Ulcer Disease

Abstract

OBJECTIVES. In February 1994, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conference panel unequivocally recommended antimicrobial therapy to eradicate H. pylori in the treatment of peptic ulcer disease (PUD). The goal of this study is to determine if these recommendations were followed by physicians treating PUD in an underserved population.METHODS. Computerized Pennsylvania Medicaid data were used to evaluate prescribing patterns among 997 patients newly treated for PUD between March 1, 1994 through March 31, 1995. Prescription of PUD therapy was assessed during the 12-month period following PUD diagnosis. Pharmacotherapy for the initial management of PUD, defined as the one-month period following the initial diagnosis, and for the follow-up period, defined as the 11-month period following the incident episode, was determined. The extent to which patients had an H. pylori or PUD invasive or noninvasive diagnostic procedure was examined. Rates of PUD outpatient physician encounters and in...