EU-7 criteria and its applicability in pharmacoepidemiological research in Central and Eastern Europe (PE001)

Abstrakt

Background and objective: The EU-7 PIM (potentially inappropriate medication) criteria represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date tool for evaluation of PIM prescribing in Europe. In some EU countries, the lower availability of PIMs from EU-7 PIM list was confirmed which may decrease applicability of EU-7 criteria in clinical pharmacy (CP) research in these countries. The aim of our study was to document approval rates, availability and prescription limits of EU-7 PIMs in several Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) in order to describe the applicability of EU-7 tool in CP research in CEE region. SETTING AND METHOD: Research teams of WG1b EU COST Action IS1402 (2015–2018) from the Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EST), Poland (POL), Slovak Republic (SR) and Croatia (CR) participated in this study. Data on EU-7 PIMs´ approval rates, availability and prescription limits were collected between July 2017–December 2018 using databases of national drug regulatory institutes and up-to-date national drug compendia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: percentages of PIMs approved for clinical use and available on pharmaceutical markets (all brand names, strengths and drug forms), PIMs´ availability on prescription or as OTC medications. RESULTS: The highest percentage of available EU-7 PIMs was confirmed in Poland (61.7%), the lowest in Croatia (43.8%) and in the majority of CEECs it ranged around 50% (52.1% > SR, 50.0% > EST, 49.6% > CZ). Particularly solid p.o. drug forms were approved (> 85%) and no substantial qualitative differences were confirmed among the lists of available PIMs (active substances) across CEECs (< 5%). Prescription limits widely differed from no prescription limits in POL to 40.1% of PIMs prescribed only by specialists in SR. Less than 20% of PIMs were available as OTC medications (12.9% CR-19.9% EST).