Code related to 'The impact of lidocaine prescribing reduction strategies: a comparison of two national health services in Europe'

Stata code related to "The impact of lidocaine prescribing reduction strategies: a comparison of two national health services in Europe" GMS data in aggregated form can be requested from the HSE PCRS at https://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/pcrs/pcrs-publications/ . Abstract Introduction A substantial proportion of medicines use is considered to be inappropriate or low-value care. In 2017, two separate interventions were implemented in Ireland and England to reduce prescribing of lidocaine medicated plasters. In Ireland, an online reimbursement applications system was introduced, while in England, guidance on items which should not routinely be prescribed in primary care, including lidocaine plasters, was published. This study aims to compare how the policy and guidance changes have impacted prescribing of lidocaine plasters in the two countries. Methods We conducted an interrupted time series study using segmented regression analysis to assess the change in prescribing rate following the introduction of guidance and policy changes. For Ireland, dispensing data related to the means-tested general medical services (GMS) scheme was used. For England, prescription data for all GP practices was used. Monthly data at the level of the Local Health Office/Clinical Commissioning Group for 2015-2019 was analysed. Outcomes were the rate of dispensings, quantity and costs of lidocaine plasters, and we modelled the level and trend change from the first full month of the policy/guidance change. Results In Ireland, there was a reduction of 15.14 (95%CI 14.76 to 15.53) dispensing of lidocaine plasters per 1,000 GMS eligible population following the introduction of the reimbursement change, equivalent to a 97.3 percent reduction in the dispensing rate immediately pre-intervention., In England, an immediate reduction of 0.0251 (95%CI 0.036 to 0.0142) in dispensings per 1,000 population (a 5.8 percent decrease), followed by a small but significant decrease in the monthly trend relative to the preintervention trend of 0.0057 per month ...