RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To find how the indicators for prescriptions for the chronically ill during the 1988-1992 period evolved, based on the analysis of the repeat prescription archive; and to assess the persistence of the effect of the 1989 corrective intervention. DESIGN: A retrospective and longitudinal evaluation study. SETTING: Primary Care Centre. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Four representative samples of patients with an ongoing prescription card for 1988 (n = 549), 1989 (n = 211), 1990 (n = 193) and 1992 (n = 126). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Indicators used were: percentage of patients in treatment with some medication of low intrinsic value (LIV), benzodiazepines, peripheric vasodilators (PV), oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAID), external NSAID and the percentage of each one of these out of the prescription total. A progressive decrease in the percentage of LIV medication in the 1988-1992 period was detected. There were significant differences, both for oral anti-diabetes drugs of high intrinsic value (HIV) (24.4 and 12.7%), and of LIV (26.6 and 16.9%) (p < 0.001 in both cases). Benzodiazepines went down from 5.4 to 1.2% (p = 0.0006), PVs from 4.4 to 1.2% (p = 0.003) and oral NSAID from 4.7 to 2.4% (p = 0.049). The percentage of patients treated with LIV medication went down from 46.1 to 29.4% (p < 0.001) and from 52.4 to 38.1% (p = 0.004), for HIV and LIV oral anti-diabetes drugs, respectively. Patients treated with benzodiazepines went down from 14.7 to 4.0% (p = 0.0017), with PV from 12.0 to 3.2% (p = 0.005) and with oral NSAID from 12.7 to 7.9% (ns). CONCLUSION: A continuous improvement in the quality of prescription for the chronically ill has been observed over the last 5 years and can be attributed to the primary care team.