BMJ 1995;310:1068 (22 April)

Letters

May perpetuate variation in prescribing unrelated to patients' need

EDITOR,--Measures based on entitlement to free prescriptions because of low income are attractive as indices of deprivation, but there are inherent drawbacks to an index based on the number of prescriptions rather than of people receiving (or entitled to) them.

Firstly, as David C E F Lloyd and colleagues comment about their proposed low income scheme index, the "deprivation score is calculable but is affected by the individual habits of prescribers."1 The effect is simply illustrated if different relative prescribing rates (1-3) are used for a population (population A; table). Although the effect will be most pronounced at practice level, the prescribing habits of practitioners within a family health services authority may be subject to the same local influences, with consequent effect on the proposed deprivation score at health authority level. 


Effect of relative prescribing rates, demography, and
proportions of people entitled to free prescriptions
because of low income on . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Low income scheme index: a new deprivation scale based on prescribing in general practice
David C E F Lloyd, Conrad M Harris, and David W Clucas
BMJ 1995 310: 165-169. [Abstract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ