Sociodemographic factors influencing the use of injections in South Korean outpatient care

Trends in Ambulatory Analgesic Usage after Myocardial Infarction: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study of Real-World Data

Although current guidelines for myocardial infarction (MI) recommend caution in using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), real-world studies of ambulatory settings are rare. This study aimed to explore the patterns and trends of analgesic prescriptions (especially NSAIDs) among patients with a history of MI in ambulatory care settings in Korea. We analyzed real-world data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service database. Patients aged 20 years or older hospitalized with incident MI were identified between January 2007 and December 2015. Ambulatory analgesics were administered after discharge from incident hospitalization for MI, and annual trends in the prescriptions of individual analgesics were evaluated. Among the 93,597 patients with incident MI, 75,131 (80.3%) received a total of 2,081,705 ambulatory analgesic prescriptions. Prescriptions were mainly issued at primary care clinics (80.3%). Analgesics were most frequently prescribed for musculoskeletal diseases (often NSAIDs, 70.7%); aceclofenac (13.7%) and diclofenac injection (9.4%) were the frequently used NSAIDs. Additionally, significant changes were observed in the trends for some analgesics, such as loxoprofen. This study suggested that NSAIDs are commonly prescribed to patients with a history of MI. Future real-world studies are needed to elucidate the drug–disease interactions of NSAIDs prescribed after MI, especially for patients with musculoskeletal diseases.

Patient factors affecting frequent potential unnecessary injection use in outpatient care setting

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of potential unnecessary injection (PUNI) and to identify factors associated with frequent PUNI uses. Population-based National Health Insurance claims data for outpatient health care settings during the six month period from July to December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients aged 18-80 without severe diseases and visited healthcare centers more than 25 times during study period were included. PUNI was defined as injection used where substitutable oral agents were available and where injection uses are not warranted. A total of 801,532 patients were included for this analysis. Among them, 29.0 % were frequent PUNI user defined as ≥10 PUNI used during the study period. In multivariate logistic regression results revealed significant associations between frequent PUNI use and several patient and healthcare utilization factors. Women than men, elderly than younger people, residents in rural areas than in big cities, and more frequent visitors to healthcare centers than less frequent visitors were more likely to be frequent PUNI users. Larger number of healthcare center utilized and higher out-of-pocket expense level showed significant lower risks of frequent PUNI uses. Identified factors associated with frequent PUNI use in this study could be the targets to develop programs for reducing injection overuse.