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. 2011:2011:969343.
doi: 10.1093/ecam/nep023. Epub 2010 Oct 21.

Allopathic versus Homeopathic Strategies and the Recurrence of Prescriptions: Results from a Pharmacoeconomic Study in Italy

Andrea Basili  1 , Francesco Lagona, Paolo Roberti di Sarsina, Corallina Basili, Teresa Valeria Paterna
Affiliations

Allopathic versus Homeopathic Strategies and the Recurrence of Prescriptions: Results from a Pharmacoeconomic Study in Italy

Andrea Basili et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011.

Abstract

This is a pharmaeconomic study to assess the impact of different, cost-specific pharmacological strategies on the recurrence rate of prescriptions in the treatment of cold symptoms. Data were obtained from a prospective cohort study reporting individual prescriptions histories of subjects experiencing cold symptoms, obtained by a stratified random sample of 316 subjects, clustered into 139 Italian families, followed up for 40 months. Costs of homeopathic and allopathic treatments were recorded within each prescription. A Cox proportional hazards model with random effects was exploited to regress time elapsed between subsequent prescriptions over the relative difference between homeopathic- and allopathic-related costs, adjusting for age and gender and accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity. Relative risks of event (prescription) re-occurrence have been estimated. The recurrence rate of prescriptions raise when allopathic strategies are preferred to homeopathic alternatives. No significant differences were observed between gender groups, while age was marginally significant. Inter-subjects heterogeneity was not significant.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age distribution of the 174 females in the study sample.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age distribution of the 141 males in the study sample.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prescription histories of the 82 subjects experiencing cold symptoms in the study sample, during the follow up (period June 2002 to October 2005).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Inter-prescription intervals versus the relative cumulative difference between allopathic and homeopathic costs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cumulative proportions of inter-prescriptions intervals exhibited by subjects undergoing a pure allopathic strategy (solid line) and a pure homeopathic strategy (dashed line).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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