Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121123

BANKOLE A. Olatosi, MS, MPH, HEALTH SERVICES POLICY & MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 800 SUMTER STREET, ARNOLD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Columbia, SC 29208, 6122268618, qbanky1@hotmail.com

Objective This study presents national estimates of the prescription drug volume and leading diagnoses of ambulatory medical care provided to non-elderly population aged 18-64 years in the United States. We describe diagnostic and drug utilization trends among this population using the 1995 and 2000 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data. We analyzed medication visits based on age, race, sex, insurance, and provider characteristics with number of medications prescribed as our dependent variable.

Methods Data from the 1995 and 2000 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys were compared to produce averaged annual estimates for ambulatory medical care drug utilization by top ten diagnoses among the non-elderly population. We weighted our sample data to produce annual average national estimates for our variables and clustered our diagnoses under more specific categories. We conducted univariate and multivariate analyses using SAS callable SUDAAN to run the regression and multilog procedures.

Results This population made an estimated 370 million visits in 1995 compared to 470 million visits in 2000, an increase of almost 21%. The visit rate per person increased from 2.13 in 1995 to 2.69 in 2000.

The South recorded the largest percentage of medication visits for both periods by diagnoses and females made more medication visits than men. Blacks recorded significantly higher medication visits rates compared to other races.

Discussion The study supports our hypothesis that drug prescription remains a significant factor driving health care spending. The marked increase in drug use by the top ten diagnoses suggests that a volume effect might be present.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the top ten diagnoses affecting non-elderly Americans in the years 1995 and 200
• Analyze prescription drug trends and utilization patterns for this poorly studied population.
• Discuss the policy implications and impact drug prescription would have on this population for future health expenditure projections.

Keywords: Prescription Drug Use Patterns,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.