Observational studyBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2025
Core medication use in general practice prescriptions: A pilot study evaluating the Drug Utilization 90% Index in Irish general practice.
Observational study in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spotlight commentary: Addressing the persistent problem of benzodiazepine overuse, time for clinical, educational and AI-driven reform.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Core medication use in general practice prescriptions: A pilot study evaluating the Drug Utilization 90% Index in Irish general practice.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Observational
- Developing and assessing the usability of a prescribing quality and safety dashboard in Irish general practice: protocol for a qualitative study.HRB open research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimsThe Drug Utilization 90% Index (DU90%), the number of medicines making up 90% of a doctor's prescribing, is a simple tool that can be used to describe core prescribing patterns. This research aimed to pilot the application of the DU90% in the Irish context, to investigate the relationship between the DU90% and prescriber and practice characteristics and prescribing quality.
methodsRetrospective observational study using anonymous prescription data from a sample of Irish general practitioners (GPs). Participating GPs provided demographic details and extracted prescription data for 2018-2022 using their existing software systems. The DU90% was calculated annually at both the practice and prescriber level. Prescribing quality indicators included antibiotic, benzodiazepine prescribing rates and high-risk nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug prescribing. The association of the DU90% with prescriber and practice characteristics and prescribing quality indicators was explored with multilevel modelling.
resultsThirty-eight prescribers from 22 different practices were included. The mean DU90% for prescribers was 141.5 (standard deviation 12.9) and for practices was 145.62 (standard deviation 11.87). Practices in receipt of the rural deprivation grant had a significantly lower DU90% (incidence rate ratio 0.94, 95% confidence interval 0.88-0.98). There was no evidence of an association between prescriber-level characteristics and the DU90% (sex, years qualified, number of sessions worked). There was a small positive relationship between the prescriber DU90% and total prescriptions, antibiotic and benzodiazepine prescribing rates, and higher rates of high-risk nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug prescriptions.
conclusionApplying the DU90% to Irish general practice prescriptions is feasible, revealing that GPs typically use 140 medicines in the bulk of their prescribing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.