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Use of varenicline for smoking cessation treatment in UK primary care: an association rule mining analysis

Huang, Yue; Lewis, Sarah; Britton, John

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Authors

YUE HUANG YUE.HUANG@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Data Analyst

John Britton



Abstract

BACKGROUND: Varenicline is probably the most effective smoking cessation pharmacotherapy, but is less widely used than nicotine replacement therapy. We therefore set out to identify the characteristics of numerically important groups of patients who typically do, or do not, receive varenicline in the UK.

METHODS: We used association rule mining to analyse data on prescribing of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy in relation to age, sex, comorbidity and other variables from 477,620 people aged 16 years and over, registered as patients throughout 2011 with one of 559 UK general practices in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database, and recorded to be current smokers.

RESULTS: 46,685 participants (9.8% of all current smokers) were prescribed any smoking cessation treatment during 2011, and 19,316 of these (4% of current smokers, 41% of those who received any therapy) were prescribed varenicline. Prescription of varenicline was most common among heavy smokers aged 31–60, and in those with a diagnosis of COPD. Varenicline was rarely used among smokers who were otherwise in good health, or were aged over 60, were lighter smokers, or had psychotic disorders or dementia.

CONCLUSIONS: Varenicline is being underused in healthy smokers, or in older smokers, and in those with psychotic disorders or dementia. Since varenicline is probably the most effective available single cessation therapy, this study identifies under-treatment of substantial public health significance.

Citation

Huang, Y., Lewis, S., & Britton, J. (2014). Use of varenicline for smoking cessation treatment in UK primary care: an association rule mining analysis. BMC Public Health, 14, Article 1024. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1024

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 29, 2014
Publication Date Oct 2, 2014
Deposit Date May 6, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMC Public Health
Electronic ISSN 1471-2458
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Article Number 1024
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1024
Keywords Varenicline, Primary care data, Smoking cessation, Associate rule mining
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/738602
Publisher URL http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1024
Related Public URLs http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192758/

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