Concomitant drug use among patients on cardiac glycosides

Abstract

Cardiac glycosides are among the drugs most commonly used in elderly patients and constitute approximately 3% of all prescriptions filled by these patients. Recipients of digitalis usually show high levels of concomitant drug use. In this study 1,128 users of cardiac glycosides users were matched 1:1 by age, gender and community to non-users. Concomitant drug use patterns in the users group were compared with such patterns in the non-users group. Utilization data were drawn from a sample of pharmacy records (population size: n=74,445). Digoxin accounted for 99% of all digitalis prescriptions. Digoxin use seems to be an important predictor for high morbidity levels and consequent drug use. The prevalence of use of anticoagulants, thyroid drugs, anti-diarrheals, anti-diabetics, anti-hypertensives and diuretics was 2–4 times higher in the digitalis group. Concomitant drug use patterns in naturally occurring groups of patients may provide an important source of information on the health status of recipients of digoxin.