Study identifies limitations in rating of society's costs of drug-related morbidity

It is well known that adverse drug reactions and medication errors cause increased morbidity. But the cost for society may be underestimated. This is shown in a review of the literature, conducted at the Nordic School of Public Health NHV.

The review of published studies identified limitations in how the society's costs of drug-related morbidity had been measured.

- We note a tendency to underestimate the society's costs when it comes to drug-related morbidity. One reason is that only patients attending hospital are included in these studies, says Hanna Gyllensten, registered pharmacist and doctoral student at the Nordic School of Public Health NHV.
Knowledge about the costs to society is needed for understanding the magnitude and relevance of a public health problem. Thus, the literature review included published studies estimating the costs of drug-related morbidity in the general public, or in a general patient population.
The identified studies show considerable variation, in terms of methods used for estimating costs and which patients were included in the studies.

- There is a need for guidelines adapted to this type of cost analyses, and how to report the methods and results, says Hanna Gyllensten. She is studying drug-related morbidity in Sweden, as one of the researchers in the DRUMS project at NHV. The project is financed by the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB).