OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the access to drugs for hypertension and diabetes and the direct cost of buying them among users of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. METHODS: Population-based, cross-sectional study of a systematic random sample of 785 patients with hypertension and 823 patients with diabetes mellitus who were registered in 208 randomly selected FHS teams in 35 municipalities of the state of Pernambuco. The selected municipalities were classified into three levels with probability proportional to municipality size (LS, large-sized; MS, medium-sized; SS, small-sized). To verify differences between the cities, we used the χ2 test. RESULTS: Pharmacological treatment was used by 91.2% patients with hypertension whereas 85.6% patients with diabetes mellitus used oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs), and 15.4% used insulin. The FHS team itself provided antihypertensive medications to 69.0% patients with hypertension, OADs to 75.0% patients with diabetes mellitus, and insulin treatment to 65.4%. The 36.9% patients with hypertension and 29.8% with diabetes mellitus that had to buy all or part of their medications reported median monthly cost of R$ 18.30, R$ 14.00, and R$ 27.61 for antihypertensive drugs, OADs, and insulin, respectively. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to increase efforts to ensure access to these drugs in the primary health care network.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the access to drugs for hypertension and diabetes and the direct cost of buying them among users of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. METHODS: Population-based, cross-sectional study of a systematic random sample of 785 patients with hypertension and 823 patients with diabetes mellitus who were registered in 208 randomly selected FHS teams in 35 municipalities of the state of Pernambuco. The selected municipalities were classified into three levels with probability proportional to municipality size (LS, large-sized; MS, medium-sized; SS, small-sized). To verify differences between the cities, we used the χ2 test. RESULTS: Pharmacological treatment was used by 91.2% patients with hypertension whereas 85.6% patients with diabetes mellitus used oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs), and 15.4% used insulin. The FHS team itself provided antihypertensive medications to 69.0% patients with hypertension, OADs to 75.0% patients with diabetes mellitus, and insulin treatment to 65.4%. The 36.9% patients with hypertension and 29.8% with diabetes mellitus that had to buy all or part of their medications reported median monthly cost of R$ 18.30, R$ 14.00, and R$ 27.61 for antihypertensive drugs, OADs, and insulin, respectively. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to increase efforts to ensure access to these drugs in the primary health care network.
Authors: Benjamin Palafox; Martin McKee; Dina Balabanova; Khalid F AlHabib; Alvaro Jr Avezum; Ahmad Bahonar; Noorhassim Ismail; Jephat Chifamba; Clara K Chow; Daniel J Corsi; Gilles R Dagenais; Rafael Diaz; Rajeev Gupta; Romaina Iqbal; Manmeet Kaur; Rasha Khatib; Annamarie Kruger; Iolanthe Marike Kruger; Fernando Lanas; Patricio Lopez-Jaramillo; Fu Minfan; Viswanathan Mohan; Prem K Mony; Aytekin Oguz; Lia M Palileo-Villanueva; Pablo Perel; Paul Poirier; Sumathy Rangarajan; Lei Rensheng; Annika Rosengren; Biju Soman; David Stuckler; S V Subramanian; Koon Teo; Lungiswa P Tsolekile; Andreas Wielgosz; Peng Yaguang; Karen Yeates; Mo Yongzhen; Khalid Yusoff; Rita Yusuf; Afzalhussein Yusufali; Katarzyna Zatońska; Salim Yusuf Journal: Int J Equity Health Date: 2016-12-08