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ARTICLE

Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice

Robyn Tamblyn, PhD; Laeora Berkson, MD, MHPE, FRCPC; W. Dale Dauphinee, MD, FRCPC; David Gayton, MD, PhD, FRCPC; Roland Grad, MD, MSc; Allen Huang, MD, FRCPC; Lisa Isaac, PhD; Peter McLeod, MD, FRCPC; and Linda Snell, MD, MHPE, FRCPC

15 September 1997 | Volume 127 Issue 6 | Pages 429-438

Background: Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases the risk for hospitalization and death from gastrointestinal bleeding and perforation.

Objectives: To 1) estimate the extent to which NSAIDs are prescribed unnecessarily and NSAID-related side effects are inaccurately diagnosed and inappropriately managed and 2) identify the physician and visit characteristics associated with suboptimal use of NSAIDs.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Montreal, Canada.

Participants: 112 physicians representing academically affiliated general practitioners, community-based general practitioners, and residents in family medicine and internal medicine.

Interventions: Blinded, office-based assessment of the management of two clinical cases (chronic hip pain due to early osteoarthritis and NSAID-related gastropathy) using elderly standardized patients.

Measurements: Quality of drug management and potential predictors of suboptimal drug management.

Results: Unnecessary prescriptions for NSAIDs or other drugs were written during 41.7% of visits. Gastropathy related to NSAID use was correctly diagnosed in 93.4% of visits and was acceptably managed in 77.4% of visits. The risk for an unnecessary NSAID prescription was greater when the contraindications to NSAID therapy were incompletely assessed (odds ratio, 2.3 [95% CI, 1.0 to 5.2]) and when the case was managed by residents in internal medicine (odds ratio, 4.1 [CI, 1.2 to 14.7]). The risk for suboptimal management of NSAID-related side effects was increased by incorrect diagnosis (odds ratio, 16.6 [CI, 3.6 to 76.5]) and shorter visits.

Conclusions: Unnecessary NSAID prescribing and suboptimal management of NSAID-related side effects were sufficiently common to raise questions about the appropriateness of NSAID use in the general population. If these results reflect current practice, prescribing patterns may contribute to avoidable gastrointestinal morbidity in elderly persons.

Author and Article Information

From McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Medical Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; and Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, California.
Grant Support: In part by grant 6605-3752-57P from the National Health Research and Development Program of Health Canada. Dr. Tamblyn is funded as a National Health Scholar by National Health Research and Development Program of Health Canada (no. 6605-5130-48).
Requests for Reprints: Robyn Tamblyn, PhD, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Room R4.11, Royal Victoria Hospital, 687 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1, Canada.
Current Author Addresses: Dr. Tamblyn: Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Room R4.11, Royal Victoria Hospital, 687 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1, Canada.

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