Abstract
BackgroundIt has been reported that there is a difference in drug prescription between males and females. Even after adjustment for multi-morbidity, females tend to use more prescription drugs compared to males. In this study, we wanted to analyse whether the gender difference in drug treatment could be explained by gender-related morbidity.MethodsData was collected on all individuals 20 years and older in the county of Östergötland in Sweden. The Johns Hopkins ACG Case-Mix System was used to calculate individual level of multi-morbidity. A report from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health using the WHO term DALY was the basis for gender-related morbidity. Prescription drugs used to treat diseases that mainly affect females were excluded from the analyses.ResultsThe odds of having prescription drugs for males, compared to females, increased from 0.45 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-0.46) to 0.82 (95% CI 0.81-0.83) after exclusion of prescription drugs that are used to treat diseases that mainly affect females.ConclusionGender-related morbidity and the use of anti-conception drugs may explain a large part of the difference in prescription drug use between males and females but still there remains a difference between the genders at 18%. This implicates that it is of importance to take the gender-related morbidity into consideration, and to exclude anti-conception drugs, when performing studies regarding difference in drug use between the genders.
Highlights
It has been reported that there is a difference in drug prescription between males and females
The main objective of this study was to analyse whether the gender difference in drug treatment observed after adjustment for multi-morbidity can be explained by gender-related morbidity
Individuals without need of health care according to the Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) Case-Mix system are placed in Resource Utilization Band 0 (RUB 0) and individuals with a very high degree of need for health care resources are placed in RUB 5
Summary
It has been reported that there is a difference in drug prescription between males and females. Even after adjustment for multi-morbidity, females tend to use more prescription drugs compared to males. We wanted to analyse whether the gender difference in drug treatment could be explained by gender-related morbidity. Prescription drug treatment may carry risks such as adverse drug reactions, interactions and polypharmacy [1], circumstances that may lead to hospital admission [2,3]. Beyond the fact that treatment with prescription drugs may cause patients to suffer from side effects, these unwanted effects are the source of substantial expenses to society. The total cost of prescription drugs is very high. In 2012 the total drug cost for prescription drugs in Sweden amounted to SEK 36 billion (≈ 3.6 billion Euros) [4].
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