Free access to medicines among older adults in primary care: a cross-sectional study

Zheng

et al. 2022

Front. Pharmacol.

The full coverage policy for essential medicines (FCPEMs) was proposed and implemented in Taizhou city of Zhejiang Province, China, to promote equal access and adherence to medicines. This study aimed to examine the effects of FCPEMs on the income-related inequality in medication adherence among local patients with hypertension or diabetes. We collected electronic health records of patients with hypertension or diabetes of three districts of Taizhou from 2011 to 2016. As the implementation schedule of the FCPEMs varied across districts, we applied a retrospective longitudinal study design and assigned records from 1 year before to 3 years following the implementation of FCPEMs as baseline and follow-up data. We thus generated a dataset with 4-year longitudinal data. The concentration index (CI) and its decomposition method were employed to measure factors contributing to inequality in medication adherence and the role played by FCPEMs. The sample size rose from 264,836 at the baseline to 315,677, 340,512, and 355,676 by each follow-up year, and the proportion of patients taking free medicines rose from 17.6 to 25.0 and 29.8% after FCPEMs implementation. The proportion of patients with high adherence increased from 39.9% at baseline to 51.6, 57.2, and 60.5%, while CI decreased from 0.073 to −0.011, −0.029, and −0.035. The contribution of FCPEMs ranked at 2nd/13, 7th/13, and 2nd/13 after the implementation of FCPEMs. Changes in CI of medication adherence for every 2 years were −0.084, −0.018, and −0.006, and the contribution of FCPEMs was −0.006, 0.006, and 0.007, ranking at 2nd/13, 2nd/13, and 1st/13, respectively. Most changes in CI of medication adherence can be attributed to FCPEMs. The medication adherence of patients with hypertension or diabetes improved after the implementation FCPEMs in Taizhou, although inequality did not improve consistently. In general, FCPEMs could be a protective factor against income-related inequalities in access and adherence to medicines. Future research is needed to investigate the change mechanism and the optimal design of similar interventions.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the Full Coverage Policy of Essential Medicines on Inequality in Medication Adherence: A Longitudinal Study in Taizhou, China

Zheng

et al. 2022

Front. Pharmacol.

“…Similar fee-exemption policies for children in primary care settings can be found in the US and Japan ( 7 , 8 ). Brazilian National Health System provides free access to medicines for older adults in primary care ( 9 ), while Spain made prescription medicines free to elderly individuals ( 10 ). Other full coverage policies prioritized rural and low-income groups, as seen in France, Canada, and China ( 11 – 13 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the full coverage policy of essential medicines on medication adherence: A quasi-experimental study in Taizhou, China

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

ObjectiveDifferent forms of full coverage policy of essential medicines (FCPEMs) have been adopted worldwide to lower medication expenditure and improve adherence. This study aims to analyse the effect of FCPEMs on patients' medication adherence in Taizhou city, China.MethodsThis study was a quasi-experimental study and set treatment and control groups. We extracted Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for hypertension and diabetes 1 year before and after FCPEMs implementation and their medication adherence level assessed by physicians. We applied the propensity score matching (PSM) method to balance the bias between the two groups. Then, the descriptive analysis was used to compare the differences in the reported medication adherence. Using the Difference-In-Differences (DIDs) method, the fixed-effect model with the logistic regression was built to analyse the effects of FCPEMs.Results225,081 eligible patients were identified from the original database. In the baseline year, FCPEM covered 39,251 patients. After PSM, 6,587 patients in the treatment group and 10,672 patients in the control group remained. We found that the proportion of patients with high adherence in the treatment group increased by 9.1% (60.8 to 69.9%, P < 0.001) and that in the control group increased by 2.6% (62.5 to 65.2%, P < 0.001). The regression results showed that FCPEMs significantly increased patients' medication adherence (OR = 2.546, P < 0.001).ConclusionFCPEMs significantly improved medication adherence. Socially disadvantaged individuals might benefit more from continuing FCPEM efforts. Expanding the coverage of FCPEMs to other medicines commonly used in patients with chronic diseases may be a promising strategy to manage chronic diseases and promote patient outcomes.

“…Unequal access to medicines is a universal problem for healthcare system reforms [1]. It exacerbates a phenomenon well documented in literature that people from lower-income and minority groups experience higher health risks and are more vulnerable to medication costs [2,3]. Full coverage policy for medicines (FCPMs) is a policy strategy to promote equal access and adherence to medicines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the Full Coverage Policy of Essential Medicines on Inequality in Medication Adherence: A Longitudinal Study in Taizhou, China

Zheng

et al. 2021

Preprint

Background: The full coverage policy for essential medicines (FCPEMs) was proposed and implemented in Taizhou city of Zhejiang Province of China to promote equal access and adherence to medicines. This study aimed to examine the effects of FCPEMs on the inequality in medication adherence among local patients with hypertension and diabetes, and to explore their influencing factorsMethods: We collected electronic health records of patients with hypertension and diabetes of three districts of Taizhou from 2011-2016. With the implementation time of FCPEMs being different, we applied a retrospective longitudinal study design and selected the records of 1 baseline year before and 3 follow-up years after following the implementation of FCPEMs. All data entries of the same patient were aggregated and generated a dataset with 4-year longitudinal data. The concentration index (CI) and its decomposition method were employed to measure the factors contributing to inequality in medication adherence and the role played by FCPEMs.Results: The sample size of the 4 years retrospective longitudinal data rose from 264,836 to 315,677, 340,512 and 355,676 individuals and the proportion of the patient taking the free medicines were 17.6% to 25.0% and 29.8% after FCPEMs. The proportion of patients with high adherence increased from 39.9% to 51.6%, 57.2%, 60.5% and CI changed from 0.073 to -0.011, -0.029, -0.035, where the rate of the contribution of FCPEMs were 54.792%, 1.223% and -19.092% and ranked 2nd, 7th and 2nd after the implementation of FCPEMs. The changes in CI of medication adherence for every two years were -0.084, -0.018, -0.006, and the contribution of FCPEMs were -0.006, 0.006, 0.007, ranking the 2nd, 2nd and 1st and mainly attributed to the changes of CI of FCPEMs.Conclusions: The medication adherence of patients with hypertension and diabetes improved after the implementation FCPEMs in Taizhou, but the inequality did not show a consistent rate of improvement. In general, FCPEMs contributed to improvements in the inequality in medication adherence. FCPEMs could be a protective factor against the income-related inequalities, but this would need further investigations and to be accompanied by other systematic efforts.