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Prescription patterns of antihypertensive therapies for newly-diagnosed uncomplicated hypertension patients, 1998–2004a |
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| Treatment regimen |
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| Variables |
Mono-therapyb |
Two-drug combinationsb |
Three-drug combinationsb |
Four(+)-drug combinationsb |
Total No. of prescriptionsc |
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| No. |
% |
No. |
% |
No. |
% |
No. |
% |
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|
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| Patient gender |
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| Male |
44 738 |
51.36# |
31 494 |
36.16# |
6 815 |
7.82# |
4 058 |
4.66# |
87 105 |
| Female |
50 059 |
54.62 |
31 927 |
34.84 |
6 024 |
6.57 |
3 639 |
3.97 |
91 649 |
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|
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| Patient age (years) |
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| <55 |
40 357 |
50.67# |
29 784 |
37.39# |
6 130 |
7.70# |
3 380 |
4.24 |
79 651 |
| ≥55 |
54 440 |
54.93 |
33 637 |
33.94 |
6 709 |
6.77 |
4 317 |
4.36 |
99 103 |
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|
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| Type of clinical facilityd |
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| Medical center |
16 721 |
48.76# |
12 693 |
37.02 |
3 897 |
11.37# |
978 |
2.85# |
34 289 |
| Regional hospital |
14 809 |
49.75# |
10 453 |
35.11# |
3 687 |
12.39# |
819 |
2.75# |
29 768 |
| Local hospital |
18 258 |
59.03# |
9 745 |
31.51# |
2 395 |
7.74# |
531 |
1.72# |
30 929 |
| Primary care clinic |
44 997 |
53.73 |
30 520 |
36.44 |
2 860 |
3.42 |
5 369 |
6.41 |
83 746 |
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|
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| Total Nos. |
94 797 |
53.03 |
63 421 |
35.48 |
12 839 |
7.18 |
7 697 |
4.31 |
178 754 |
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Notes: a Total sample number = 6 536 patients. b No. refers to the number of prescriptions under each treatment regimen; % refers to the percentage of the total drugs prescribed under the four treatment regimens. c As a result of missing data, the sum of the total number of prescriptions over the four types of clinical facilities is smaller than the overall number of prescriptions. d Pairwise group comparisons are performed taking primary care clinics as the reference. # Significant p-value with the Bonferroni-adjusted α-level, p < 0.0025 | |||||||||
Liu and Wang BMC Health Services Research 2008 8:133 doi:10.1186/1472-6963-8-133 |
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