Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence
Objective Medical therapy can halt or significantly slow the progression of glaucoma if medicines are used in accordance with the guidelines. We used dispensing claims for a 10% sample of all Australians dispensed publicly subsidised glaucoma medicines to determine the prevalence and incidence of gl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2021-09-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open Ophthalmology |
| Online Access: | https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000921.full |
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| _version_ | 1850203391213436928 |
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| author | Benjamin Daniels Iain Kaan Claudia Bruno Helga Zoega Paul Healey |
| author_facet | Benjamin Daniels Iain Kaan Claudia Bruno Helga Zoega Paul Healey |
| author_sort | Benjamin Daniels |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective Medical therapy can halt or significantly slow the progression of glaucoma if medicines are used in accordance with the guidelines. We used dispensing claims for a 10% sample of all Australians dispensed publicly subsidised glaucoma medicines to determine the prevalence and incidence of glaucoma medicine treatment and to examine treatment persistence between July 2012 and June 2019.Methods We estimated incidence and prevalence per 10 000 population for Australian financial years (1 July to 30 June). We defined prevalence as at least one dispensing of any glaucoma medicine and incidence as a dispensing of any glaucoma medicine with no previous dispensing during the preceding 12 months. We estimated duration of treatment for a cohort initiating glaucoma medicines and used Kaplan-Meier methods to estimate the proportion of people persisting on treatment at 6, 12, 18 and 36 months after initiation. We stratified analyses by the number of repeats prescribed at initiation, age, sex and medicine class.Results Prevalence remained stable over the study period at around 180/10 000 people/year; incidence was also stable around 36/10 000/year. Among 34 900 people initiating glaucoma medicines, 37.0% remained on treatment at 6 months from initiation, 29.8% at 12 months and 19.2% at 36 months. Median duration of treatment was 13.2 months (IQR: 2.5—not reached) for people initiating prostaglandin analogues and less than 3 months for those initiating other medicine classes.Conclusion Prevalence and incidence of glaucoma treatment have not changed in Australia over the past decade. Persistence to treatment increased with age but remained poor throughout the study period. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6ce5eef4f0f849d98793cedd0a1ed559 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2397-3269 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open Ophthalmology |
| spelling | doaj-art-6ce5eef4f0f849d98793cedd0a1ed5592025-08-20T02:11:31ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open Ophthalmology2397-32692021-09-016110.1136/bmjophth-2021-000921Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistenceBenjamin Daniels0Iain Kaan1Claudia Bruno2Helga Zoega3Paul Healey4McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, USAAbbVie Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaMedicines Policy Research Unit, Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia1 Centre of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, IcelandCentre for Vision Research, WIMR, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaObjective Medical therapy can halt or significantly slow the progression of glaucoma if medicines are used in accordance with the guidelines. We used dispensing claims for a 10% sample of all Australians dispensed publicly subsidised glaucoma medicines to determine the prevalence and incidence of glaucoma medicine treatment and to examine treatment persistence between July 2012 and June 2019.Methods We estimated incidence and prevalence per 10 000 population for Australian financial years (1 July to 30 June). We defined prevalence as at least one dispensing of any glaucoma medicine and incidence as a dispensing of any glaucoma medicine with no previous dispensing during the preceding 12 months. We estimated duration of treatment for a cohort initiating glaucoma medicines and used Kaplan-Meier methods to estimate the proportion of people persisting on treatment at 6, 12, 18 and 36 months after initiation. We stratified analyses by the number of repeats prescribed at initiation, age, sex and medicine class.Results Prevalence remained stable over the study period at around 180/10 000 people/year; incidence was also stable around 36/10 000/year. Among 34 900 people initiating glaucoma medicines, 37.0% remained on treatment at 6 months from initiation, 29.8% at 12 months and 19.2% at 36 months. Median duration of treatment was 13.2 months (IQR: 2.5—not reached) for people initiating prostaglandin analogues and less than 3 months for those initiating other medicine classes.Conclusion Prevalence and incidence of glaucoma treatment have not changed in Australia over the past decade. Persistence to treatment increased with age but remained poor throughout the study period.https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000921.full |
| spellingShingle | Benjamin Daniels Iain Kaan Claudia Bruno Helga Zoega Paul Healey Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence BMJ Open Ophthalmology |
| title | Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence |
| title_full | Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence |
| title_fullStr | Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence |
| title_short | Medicine treatment of glaucoma in Australia 2012–2019: prevalence, incidence and persistence |
| title_sort | medicine treatment of glaucoma in australia 2012 2019 prevalence incidence and persistence |
| url | https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000921.full |
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