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Photo of Shai Mulinari. Private photo.

Shai Mulinari

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

Photo of Shai Mulinari. Private photo.

Sociodemographic patterns in pharmacy dispensing of medications for erectile dysfunction in Sweden

Author

  • Pernilla J Bjerkeli
  • Shai Mulinari
  • Sofia Zettermark
  • Juan Merlo

Summary, in English

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between sociodemographic factors and pharmacy dispensing of medications for erectile dysfunction (ED) in the general population of middle-aged and elderly men. By considering a number of medical conditions that could promote or contraindicate use of ED medication, the analysis could help capture prescription patterns that might not be explained by medical needs.

METHODS: Individual-level pharmacy dispensing data from 2006 for a population-based cohort of 216,148 men aged 45-79 years in the county Scania, Sweden, were analysed. Multiple logistic regression was applied, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to quantify the discriminatory accuracy (DA) of the associations. National trends in pharmacy dispensing of ED medication between 2006 and 2016 were also analysed.

RESULTS: Pharmacy dispensing of ED medication increased between 2006 and 2016, particularly among men aged 65-79 years (from 6.8 to 9.2%). Dispensing of ED medication was positively associated with higher socioeconomic position, and divorced and widowed men were more likely to fill a prescription with ED medication than married men. These associations remained after adjusting for medical conditions. The DA of the associations was, however, rather low (AUC = 0.69 among 45-64 year olds and AUC = 0.65 among 65-79 year olds).

CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy dispensing of ED medication seem linked to the individuals socioeconomic position, age and marital status suggesting sociodemographic disparities in the pharmacy dispensing targeting sexual function. However, the low DA of the associations shows the limited capacity of these factors to predict ED medication use at the individual level.

Department/s

  • Social Epidemiology
  • Sociology
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Pages

209-218

Publication/Series

European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

Volume

74

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Social and Clinical Pharmacy
  • Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Keywords

  • Journal Article

Status

Published

Research group

  • Social Epidemiology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1432-1041