Outpatient prescription patterns of COVID-19 drugs in the metropolitan area of Mexico City
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissionsoup.com..
BACKGROUND: We aimed to describe the use of drugs with apparent efficacy in ambulatory patients with confirmed COVID-19 and the relationship of Google Trends searches with prescriptions and the total number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico City.
METHODS: Between March 2020 and February 2021, we surveyed 350 patients confirmed to have COVID-19 across 3 hospitals in Mexico City for their ambulatory prescriptions. We analysed the correlation between prescription patterns of 4 drugs with apparent efficacy against COVID-19, Google Trends searches for these drugs, and the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mexico City.
RESULTS: We included 350 patients, of whom 59% were women with a median age of 38 years (interquartile range, 29-51), and 72% had a bachelor's degree or higher. There were ambulatory medical prescriptions in 172 (49%) patients, and self-prescriptions were reported in 99 (28%) patients. The prescription rate was high for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin (19%) and dexamethasone (25%). There was a decrease in the prescription of hydroxychloroquine (P < 0.001) and a strong positive correlation between hydroxychloroquine (r = 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.11-0.90; P = 0.02) prescription and online searches for hydroxychloroquine. There was a strong positive correlation between online searches for azithromycin, dexamethasone, ivermectin, and vitamin D and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a high proportion of prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin and dexamethasone despite their unproven efficacy. Analysis of Google Trends showed a strong correlation between the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and searches for such drugs, suggesting a higher rate of prescriptions. Analysis of online searches could thus help to actively survey public health behaviours in the future.
| Medienart: |
E-Artikel |
|---|
| Erscheinungsjahr: |
2022 |
|---|---|
| Erschienen: |
2022 |
| Enthalten in: |
Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:39 |
|---|---|
| Enthalten in: |
Family practice - 39(2022), 3 vom: 28. Mai, Seite 515-518 |
| Sprache: |
Englisch |
|---|
| Beteiligte Personen: |
Fuentes-Gonzalez, Maria F [VerfasserIn] |
|---|
| Links: |
|---|
| Anmerkungen: |
Date Completed 02.06.2022 Date Revised 07.12.2022 published: Print Citation Status MEDLINE |
|---|
| doi: |
10.1093/fampra/cmab167 |
|---|
| funding: |
|
|---|---|
| Förderinstitution / Projekttitel: |
|
| PPN (Katalog-ID): |
NLM334463998 |
|---|
| LEADER | 01000naa a22002652 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | NLM334463998 | ||
| 003 | DE-627 | ||
| 005 | 20231225223740.0 | ||
| 007 | cr uuu---uuuuu | ||
| 008 | 231225s2022 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c | ||
| 024 | 7 | |a 10.1093/fampra/cmab167 |2 doi | |
| 028 | 5 | 2 | |a pubmed24n1114.xml |
| 035 | |a (DE-627)NLM334463998 | ||
| 035 | |a (NLM)34910137 | ||
| 040 | |a DE-627 |b ger |c DE-627 |e rakwb | ||
| 041 | |a eng | ||
| 100 | 1 | |a Fuentes-Gonzalez, Maria F |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Outpatient prescription patterns of COVID-19 drugs in the metropolitan area of Mexico City |
| 264 | 1 | |c 2022 | |
| 336 | |a Text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
| 337 | |a ƒaComputermedien |b c |2 rdamedia | ||
| 338 | |a ƒa Online-Ressource |b cr |2 rdacarrier | ||
| 500 | |a Date Completed 02.06.2022 | ||
| 500 | |a Date Revised 07.12.2022 | ||
| 500 | |a published: Print | ||
| 500 | |a Citation Status MEDLINE | ||
| 520 | |a © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissionsoup.com. | ||
| 520 | |a BACKGROUND: We aimed to describe the use of drugs with apparent efficacy in ambulatory patients with confirmed COVID-19 and the relationship of Google Trends searches with prescriptions and the total number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico City | ||
| 520 | |a METHODS: Between March 2020 and February 2021, we surveyed 350 patients confirmed to have COVID-19 across 3 hospitals in Mexico City for their ambulatory prescriptions. We analysed the correlation between prescription patterns of 4 drugs with apparent efficacy against COVID-19, Google Trends searches for these drugs, and the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mexico City | ||
| 520 | |a RESULTS: We included 350 patients, of whom 59% were women with a median age of 38 years (interquartile range, 29-51), and 72% had a bachelor's degree or higher. There were ambulatory medical prescriptions in 172 (49%) patients, and self-prescriptions were reported in 99 (28%) patients. The prescription rate was high for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin (19%) and dexamethasone (25%). There was a decrease in the prescription of hydroxychloroquine (P < 0.001) and a strong positive correlation between hydroxychloroquine (r = 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.11-0.90; P = 0.02) prescription and online searches for hydroxychloroquine. There was a strong positive correlation between online searches for azithromycin, dexamethasone, ivermectin, and vitamin D and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases | ||
| 520 | |a CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a high proportion of prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin and dexamethasone despite their unproven efficacy. Analysis of Google Trends showed a strong correlation between the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and searches for such drugs, suggesting a higher rate of prescriptions. Analysis of online searches could thus help to actively survey public health behaviours in the future | ||
| 650 | 4 | |a Journal Article | |
| 650 | 4 | |a COVID-19 | |
| 650 | 4 | |a SARS-CoV-2 | |
| 650 | 4 | |a health information | |
| 650 | 4 | |a infectious diseases | |
| 650 | 4 | |a medical errors/patient safety | |
| 650 | 4 | |a prescription drug monitoring programs | |
| 650 | 4 | |a self-management | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Hydroxychloroquine |2 NLM | |
| 650 | 7 | |a 4QWG6N8QKH |2 NLM | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Dexamethasone |2 NLM | |
| 650 | 7 | |a 7S5I7G3JQL |2 NLM | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Azithromycin |2 NLM | |
| 650 | 7 | |a 83905-01-5 |2 NLM | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Ordinola Navarro, Alberto |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Carmona-Aguilera, Zully |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Hernández-Jimenez, Carlos A |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Benitez-Altamirano, Gustavo M |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Beltran-Ontiveros, Luis D |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Lopez-Vejar, Cesar |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Ramirez-Hinojosa, Juan P |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Vera-Lastra, Olga |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Lopez Luis, Bruno A |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 773 | 0 | 8 | |i Enthalten in |t Family practice |d 1993 |g 39(2022), 3 vom: 28. Mai, Seite 515-518 |w (DE-627)NLM013359614 |x 1460-2229 |7 nnns |
| 773 | 1 | 8 | |g volume:39 |g year:2022 |g number:3 |g day:28 |g month:05 |g pages:515-518 |
| 856 | 4 | 0 | |u http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmab167 |3 Volltext |
| 912 | |a GBV_USEFLAG_A | ||
| 912 | |a GBV_NLM | ||
| 951 | |a AR | ||
| 952 | |d 39 |j 2022 |e 3 |b 28 |c 05 |h 515-518 | ||