Prescription of atropine eyedrops among 4-18 year old Taiwanese children from 2000 to 2007

Objectives: To examine the prescription trend of atropine eyedrops for the treatment of myopia in 4-18 year old children and to determine the factors associated with atropine eyedrops prescription. Methods: A population based cross-sectional study was conducted using a representative sample from the National Health Insurance claims data (LHID 2005). All 4-18 year-old children in each year were included. Main outcome measure was the proportion of subjects prescribed atropine eyedrops more than once during the school years from 2000 to 2007. Results: There was a significant increase in prescription of atropine eyedrops for all children from school year 2000 (4.5%) to 2007 (10.3%), and the pattern was similar (42.1% in 2000 and 56.7% in 2007) for the children with myopia diagnosis (ICD 367.1). There was a shift from prescribing high concentration (0.5% and 1%) atropine eyedrops to low concentration (0.3%, 0.25% and 0.1%) atropine eyedrops. Atropine eyedrops were more frequently prescribed to 9-11 year old children, girls, children who live in highly urbanized areas and children from high socioeconomic families. Conclusions: The increased prescription of atropine eyedrops shows that certain ophthalmologists in Taiwan consider this drug can be used to treat myopia for children. Based on atropine prescription in Taiwan, governments and policy makers are now in a better position to decide if they are going to integrate atropine as a treatment modality.