Inappropriate Drug Prescription and Use Clinical Trial
Official title:
Effectiveness of Informative and/or Educational Interventions Aimed at Improving the Appropriate Use of Drugs Designed for General Practitioners and Their Patients
Pharmacological intervention is an essential step in health promotion. However, lots of drugs are often used in inappropriate ways, especially in elderly patients. This study is aiming at evaluating the effectiveness of educational and/or informative interventions addressed to general practitioners and their adult patients in Italy, in order to improve appropriateness of prescribing in primary care.
EDU.RE.DRUG project is a prospective, multicentre, open‐label, parallel‐arm, controlled,
pragmatic trial directed to general practitioners (GPs) and their patients from two Italian
regions (Campania and Lombardy), with the objective of investigating the practice of
prescribing among GPs to highlight the most frequent events of inappropriateness and to
implement ad hoc interventions for GPs and patients.
Appropriateness of prescribing in general practice will be assessed by evaluating selected
prescribing, consumption and adherence indicators, using Regional administrative
pharmaceutical prescription databases.
Primary care physicians and their patients will be assigned to four trial arms: informative
intervention (leaflets and posters for patients), educational intervention (feedback reports
and online CME courses for GPs), combined interventions, or no intervention. Intervention
effectiveness will be assessed measuring the variation in rates of inappropriate prescription
indicators after 1-year of follow-up.
EDU.RE.DRUG project will provide with improvements in the prescribing performance of GPs and
in patients' adherence to treatment, with relevant clinical implications in terms of rational
and safe use of drugs and optimized patient care, and with economic benefits (optimization of
available resources use and savings in direct and indirect health costs).
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