Patterns of inhaled XXXX medication use: a 3-year longitudinal analysis of prescription claims data from British Columbia, Canada.

@entity1 @entity565 @entity23743
STUDY OBJECTIVES: To assess trends in @entity565 management and to identify factors associated with increasing short-acting (SA) beta-agonist utilization in British Columbia using administrative prescription data. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort analysis. SETTING: All @entity1 between 13 and 50 years of age who had received at least one prescription for a @entity23743 -agonist covered by BC Pharmacare between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of all @entity1 , and longitudinal analyses only of @entity1 who had received at least one @entity23743 -agonist prescription in each of the 3 years. Trends in @entity565 medication use over time were evaluated using repeated-measures Mantel-Haenszel tests. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with increasing @entity23743 -agonist use. RESULTS: A total of 78,758 @entity1 were included in the cohort. No decrease in the annual prevalence of receiving more than four canisters per year of a @entity23743 -agonist was identified between 1996 and 1998. A total of 12,844 @entity1 filled at least one @entity23743 -agonist prescription each year. Time-trend analysis showed an overall increasing probability of not receiving an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) agent in this population (p = 0.002). In @entity1 exhibiting low @entity23743 -agonist use, > 18 years of age (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.5), male gender (adjusted OR, 1.7), and in receipt of social assistance (adjusted OR, 2.3) were associated with receiving increasing amounts of @entity23743 -agonist agents over the 3 years. In @entity1 with a high degree of use of @entity23743 -agonists, only the receipt of social assistance (adjusted OR, 1.3) was significantly associated with increasing use. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the development and dissemination of @entity565 management guidelines, there was no trend toward decreasing @entity23743 -agonist use. An unexpected trend toward decreasing ICS utilization was identified. Receiving social assistance was a risk factor for increasing @entity23743 -agonist use, independent of baseline utilization.
