Linked Life Data

17711913

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/17711913

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-8-22
pubmed:abstractText
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are often given a prescription for a short course of oral steroids and antibiotics for self-administration during an acute exacerbation. The main objective of this study was to determine the impact of such prescriptions on medical care utilization, and steroids and antibiotics intake. This retrospective cohort study included patients with moderate to severe COPD participating in a self-management programme. We compared the number of unplanned medical visits (including hospitalizations) and the utilization of systemic steroids (number of short courses, number of days on treatment) and antibiotics (number of treatments) over a period of six months following registration to the programme in patients who received such a prescription and those who did not. Data were collected from hospital and community pharmacy files. A total of 89 patients were included; 46 received a self-administered prescription. During the study period, we found no difference between the two groups in the number of unplanned medical visits. However, we observed small but significant differences in the number of short courses of Prednisone (P = 0.018) and antibiotics (P = 0.006). This translated in an important difference in the number of days on steroids over the same period (;Prescription' group: 26; controls: 8; P = 0.005). Self-administered prescriptions may increase steroids and antibiotics utilization in patients with moderate to severe COPD, without reducing the number of unplanned medical visits.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:issn
1479-9723
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
4
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
143-7
pubmed:dateRevised
2008-11-21
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
Self-administered prescriptions of oral steroids and antibiotics in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: are we doing more harm than good?
pubmed:affiliation
Centre de recherche, Centre de pneumologie, Hôpital Laval, Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de l'Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Comparative Study, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't