YUE HUANG YUE.HUANG@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Data Analyst
Use of varenicline for smoking cessation treatment in UK primary care: an association rule mining analysis
Huang, Yue; Lewis, Sarah; Britton, John
Authors
Professor SARAH LEWIS SARAH.LEWIS@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Medical Statistics
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 | May 6, 2016 |
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/ |
Files
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Copyright Statement
Copyright information regarding this work can be found at the following address: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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