Purpose: To describe prescribing patterns in elderly Italian diabetic patients of the Lombardy Region in 2000 and 2010 using an administrative database. Hospital admissions and mortality were also recorded and compared in the two index years.
Methods: Analyses were performed on the whole cohort of elderly diabetic patients and across age groups. Direct age standardization was done, with data from the Lombardy Region database for 2005 used as reference to compare diabetic populations in the two index years. Logistic regression models were used to analyze changes in hospital admissions and mortality and to calculate odds ratios.
Results: Using data retrieved from the Lombardy Region database we identified 176,384 and 283,982 elderly diabetic patients in 2000 and 2010, respectively. The overall rates of patients treated with antidiabetic drugs were 92.5% in 2000 and 97.0% in 2010. Between 2000 and 2010 the prescribing of glibenclamide declined by 30.0% (from 52.9 to 22.9%, p < 0.001) and that of biguanides rose by 17.4 % (from 47.5 to 64.8%, p < 0.001). In 2010 thiazolidinediones, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors and incretin mimetic drugs were seldom prescribed. Drugs for cardiovascular prevention rose in all age classes from 2000 to 2010, and the rates of hospital admission overall fell from 32.0 to 26.8% (p < 0.001) during the same period, with the exception of those aged ≥85 years. Between 2000 and 2010 the mortality rate decreased in patients aged 65-74 years (from 3.4 to 2.9%, p < 0.0001) and rose significantly in those aged ≥85 years.
Conclusions: The drug prescription profile of elderly diabetic patients changed from 2000 to 2010, with a tendency toward recommended drugs. These changes may possibly be linked to the decrease in both hospital admissions and mortality in the diabetic group aged 65-74 years.