Trends in direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) prescribing in English primary care (2014-2019)
- PMID: 36371664
- DOI: 10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321377
Trends in direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) prescribing in English primary care (2014-2019)
Abstract
Background: In England, most prescribing of direct-acting oral anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation (AF) is in primary care. However, there remain gaps in our understanding of dosage and disparities in use. We aimed to describe trends in direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) prescribing, including dose reduction in people with renal impairment and other criteria, and adherence.
Methods: Using English primary care sentinel network data from 2014 to 2019, we assessed appropriate DOAC dose adjustment with creatinine clearance (CrCl). Our primary care sentinel cohort was a subset of 722 general practices, with 6.46 million currently registered patients at the time of this study.
Results: Of 6 464 129 people in the cohort, 2.3% were aged ≥18 years with a diagnosis of AF, and 30.8% of these were prescribed vitamin K antagonist and 69.1% DOACs. Appropriate DOAC prescribing following CrCl measures improved between 2014 and 2019; dabigatran from 21.3% (95% CI 15.1% to 28.8%) to 48.7% (95% CI 45.0% to 52.4%); rivaroxaban from 22.1% (95% CI 16.7% to 28.4%) to 49.9% (95% CI 48.5% to 53.3%); edoxaban from 10.0% (95% CI 0.3% to 44.5%) in 2016 to 57.6% (95% CI 54.5% to 60.7%) in 2019; apixaban from 30.8% (95% CI 9.1% to 61.4%) in 2015 to 60.5% (95% CI 57.8% to 63.2%) in 2019.Adherence was highest for factor Xa inhibitors, increasing from 50.1% (95% CI 47.7% to 52.4%) in 2014 to 57.8% (95% CI 57.4% to 58.2%) in 2019. Asian and black/mixed ethnicity was associated with non-adherence (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.56 to 2.09) as was male gender (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.22), higher socioeconomic status (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.52 to 1.68), being an ex-smoker (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.19) and hypertension (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.17).
Conclusions: The volume and quality of DOAC prescribing has increased yearly. Future interventions to augment quality of anticoagulant management should target disparities in adherence.
Keywords: atrial fibrillation; general practice; medication adherence.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing interests: MJ, XF, JS, GD, FDRH and SdeL are employees of, and JW and MF honorary appointment at University of Oxford, which received funding from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer to undertake this study. KGP, BS and JA are employees of Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals. SE is a postgraduate doctoral student with SdeL at University of Surrey. SdeL is director of the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre and has also received funding through his university from Daiichi Sankyo for AF research. JS receives funding from the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society via a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (ref: 211182/Z/18/Z) and an NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Senior Fellowship. BCTF has acted as a consultant, speaker or received grants from Abbott Diabetes, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, GSK, Janssen, Medtronic, MSD, Napp, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi. This research was funded in part, by the Wellcome Trust (211182/Z/18/Z). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. FDRH acknowledges part support as director of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Oxford Thames Valley, and Theme Lead of the NIHR OUH BRC. FDRH has also received occasional fees or expenses for speaking or consultancy from AZ, BI, Bayer, BMS/Pfizer and Novartis.
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