A retrospective cohort study conducted in the United Kingdom has examined preventative medication prescribing on hospital admission and discharge for patients with advanced lung cancer, and the factors affecting this prescribing. The study included patients from two centres in the UK and US, with prescribed preventative medications classified into groups: vitamins/minerals, and antidiabetic, antihypertensive, lipid lowering agents and antiplatelet medications. The UK centre (n = 125) had a mean number of 1.9 (SD 1.7) preventative medications prescribed on admission and 1.7 (SD 1.7) on discharge, while the US centre (n = 191) had mean 2.6 (SD 2.2) preventative medications prescribed on admission and 1.9 (SD 2.2) on discharge. A zero‐inflated negative binomial regression model was utilised to find a significant link between the amount of preventative drugs prescribed on admission and on discharge, and also between the total number of drugs and the number of preventative medications prescribed on discharge. The results demonstrate that preventative medication prescribing in patients with advanced lung cancer is common across different healthcare systems, but it is not associated with patient-based and hospital-based factors. The full details of the study, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, can be viewed here.
Contributed by Australian Medication Safety Services Associate – Isabella Singh