Variations and increase in use of statins across Europe: data from administrative databases

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Abstract
As part of a wider study on drug use,3 we collected data on statin use by total defined daily doses and then calculated doses per 1000 of the population covered (by the relevant data source) in 13 of the 15 European Union countries and in Norway for the year 2000. The data sources were the major publicly supported sources, mostly governmental or major insurance or sickness funds (see appendix 2 on bmj.com for details). These systems cover all or only part of a population, and only the publicly funded use (except Sweden, which includes both public and the small privately reimbursed use) in the community (except Norway, which includes use in small hospitals). For instance, the Irish data refer only to the population covered by the General Medical Services Scheme (the poorest third of the population, who are probably also at highest cardiovascular risk); for Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Portugal, the data refer to the population covered by Social Insurances (75-90% of the whole population, according to the country); “UK” data refer to England only (83% of UK population). For Austria and Belgium, only aggregated data on total use and expenditure were available.