Utilisation of XXXX prophylaxis: the effect of changes in guidelines in The Netherlands, 1993-1998.

@entity24517 @entity311 @entity8775 @entity3964
INTRODUCTION: The increase in international travelling from temperate zones to tropical countries and increasing drug resistance of @entity3964 has resulted in a growing number of travellers that are at risk for contracting @entity311 . The objective of this study was to obtain insight into dispensing patterns of @entity311 and to determine whether health care providers have followed changes in guidelines. METHODS: Data on prescriptions of @entity24517 and @entity8775 were obtained from the Dutch 'Foundation for Pharmaceutical Statistics' (SFK) covering the period 1 January 1993 up to 31 December 1998. From Statistics Netherlands (SN), we obtained the number of travellers to endemic areas during the years 1994-1998. RESULTS: There were 420,963 prescriptions for @entity8775 and 464,904 for @entity24517 dispensed during the study period. The total number of prescriptions for @entity311 increased during the period 1993-1997 from 98,325 (of which 14,427 (14.7%) for @entity8775 and 83,898 (85.3%) for @entity24517 ) to 168,452 (of which 90,232 (53.6%) for @entity8775 and 78,220 (46.4%) for @entity24517 ). The number of prescriptions per 1000 travellers decreased over the years for @entity24517 from 169 to 118 but remained stable for @entity8775 at 126. The average duration for which @entity8775 was prescribed remained stable, whereas the average duration for which @entity24517 was prescribed decreased over time. We observed differences in the prescription rate of prescriptions for @entity8775 between geographical regions in the Netherlands. CONCLUSION: Changes in the guidelines of @entity311 prophylaxis with respect to type and duration were generally followed by health care providers. Nevertheless there are variations between the regions in the proportion of prescribed courses of @entity8775 .
