IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v122y2018i6p614-620.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Variations in non-prescription drug consumption and expenditure: Determinants and policy implications

Author

Listed:
  • Otto, Monica
  • Armeni, Patrizio
  • Jommi, Claudio

Abstract

This paper analyses the determinants of cross-regional variations in expenditure and consumption for non-prescription drugs using the Italian Health Care Service as a case study. This research question has never been posed in other literature contributions. Per capita income, the incidence of elderly people, the presence of distribution points alternative to community pharmacies (para-pharmacies and drug corners in supermarkets), and the disease prevalence were included as possible explanatory variables. A trade-off between consumption of non-prescription and prescription-only drugs was also investigated. Correlation was tested through linear regression models with regional fixed-effects. Demand-driven variables, including the prevalence of the target diseases and income, were found to be more influential than supply-side variables, such as the presence of alternative distribution points. Hence, the consumption of non-prescription drugs appears to respond to needs and is not induced by the supply. The expected trade-off between consumption for prescription-only and non-prescription drugs was not empirically found: increasing the use of non-prescription drugs did not automatically imply savings on prescription-only drugs covered by third payers. Despite some caveats (the short period of time covered by the longitudinal data and some missing monthly data), the regression model revealed a high explanatory power of the variability and a strong predictive ability of future values.

Suggested Citation

  • Otto, Monica & Armeni, Patrizio & Jommi, Claudio, 2018. "Variations in non-prescription drug consumption and expenditure: Determinants and policy implications," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(6), pages 614-620.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:122:y:2018:i:6:p:614-620
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.01.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851018300277
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2018.01.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alice Sanwald & Engelbert Theurl, 2017. "Out-of-pocket expenditures for pharmaceuticals: lessons from the Austrian household budget survey," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(4), pages 435-447, May.
    2. Joan Costa-Font & Panos Kanavos & Joan Rovira, 2007. "Determinants of out-of-pocket pharmaceutical expenditure and access to drugs in Catalonia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(5), pages 541-551.
    3. Coulson, N Edward, et al, 1995. "Estimating the Moral-Hazard Effect of Supplemental Medical Insurance in the Demand for Prescription Drugs by the Elderly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 122-126, May.
    4. Mousnad, Mohamed Awad & Shafie, Asrul Akmal & Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham, 2014. "Systematic review of factors affecting pharmaceutical expenditures," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 137-146.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Herberholz, Chantal & Phuntsho, Sonam, 2021. "Medical, transportation and spiritual out-of-pocket health expenditure on outpatient and inpatient visits in Bhutan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    2. Yesim Köksal, Miyase, 2011. "Compassion and cost: The dual role of reference pricing," Working Papers in Economics 498, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Ziwei Zhang & Pu Ge & Mengyao Yan & Yuyao Niu & Diyue Liu & Ping Xiong & Qiyu Li & Jinzi Zhang & Wenli Yu & Xinying Sun & Zhizhong Liu & Yibo Wu, 2022. "Self-Medication Behaviors of Chinese Residents and Consideration Related to Drug Prices and Medical Insurance Reimbursement When Self-Medicating: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, October.
    4. Jiang, Yawen & Ni, Weiyi, 2020. "Impact of supplementary private health insurance on hospitalization and physical examination in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina, 2010. "Explaining the demand for pharmaceuticals in Spain: Are there differences in drug consumption between foreigners and the Spanish population?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(2-3), pages 217-224, October.
    6. Julieta Trías, 2004. "Determinantes de la Utilización de los Servicios de Salud: El caso de los niños en la Argentina," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0009, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    7. A. ConwayLenihan & S. Ahern & S. Moore & J. Cronin & N. Woods, 2016. "Factors influencing the variation in GMS prescribing expenditure in Ireland," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Ivan Moreno-Torres, 2011. "Generic drugs in Spain: price competition vs. moral hazard," Working Papers XREAP2011-04, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2011.
    9. Adriana Lleras-Muney & Frank R. Lichtenberg, 2002. "The Effect of Education on Medical Technology Adoption: Are the More Educated More Likely to Use New Drugs," NBER Working Papers 9185, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Ahmad Reshad Osmani & Albert Okunade, 2021. "A Double-Hurdle Model of Healthcare Expenditures across Income Quintiles and Family Size: New Insights from a Household Survey," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, May.
    11. José A. Pagán & Andrea Puig & Beth J. Soldo, 2007. "Health insurance coverage and the use of preventive services by Mexican adults," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(12), pages 1359-1369, December.
    12. Jorge Iván González, 2016. "Sentimientos y racionalidad en economía," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Economía, edition 1, number 75, August.
    13. Xiangping Liu & Danijel Nestic & Tomislav Vukina, 2012. "Estimating Adverse Selection And Moral Hazard Effects With Hospital Invoices Data In A Government‐Controlled Healthcare System," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(8), pages 883-901, August.
    14. Gerson Javier Pérez-Valbuena & Alejandro Silva-Ureña, 2017. "Una mirada a los gastos de bolsillo en salud para Colombia," Chapters, in: Jaime Bonet & Karelys Guzmán-Finol & Lucas Wilfried Hahn-De-Castro (ed.), La salud en Colombia: una perspectiva regional, chapter 11, pages 365-404, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    15. Paul Grootendorst & Mitchell Levine, 2002. "Do Drug Plans Matter? Effects of Drug Plan Eligibility on Drug Use Among the Elderly, Social Assistance Recipients and the General Population," Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population Research Reports 372, McMaster University.
    16. Filippini, M. & Heimsch, F. & Masiero, G., 2014. "Antibiotic consumption and the role of dispensing physicians," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 242-251.
    17. Marisol Rodríguez & Alexandrina Stoyanova, 2004. "The effect of private insurance access on the choice of GP/specialist and public/private provider in Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 689-703, July.
    18. José A. Pagán & Andrea Puig & Beth J. Soldo, 2007. "Health insurance coverage and the use of preventive services by Mexican adults," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(12), pages 1359-1369.
    19. Andrés Romeu & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2005. "Counts with an endogenous binary regressor: A series expansion approach," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, March.
    20. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:122:y:2018:i:6:p:614-620. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.