The effects of catastrophic drug plan deductibles on older women's use of cardiovascular medicines: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: In recent years, some provinces have implemented income-based catastrophic drug coverage in an effort to provide universal drug coverage while limiting government liability for the escalating costs of medicines needed for an aging population. We sought to examine the effects of income-based deductibles under British Columbia's Fair PharmaCare system on older patients' use of cardiovascular medicines in 2013, 10 years after the province's policy change.

Methods: Using linked administrative databases, we studied rates of hypertension and cholesterol medication used by 2 cohorts of older, married women who had different levels of public drug subsidy based solely on their spouses' ages.

Long-term sedative use among community-dwelling adults: a population-based analysis.

Background: Chronic use of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine-like sedatives (z-drugs) presents substantial risks to people of all ages. We sought to assess trends in long-term sedative use among community-dwelling adults in British Columbia.

Methods: Using population-based linked administrative databases, we examined longitudinal trends in age-standardized rates of sedative use among different age groups of community-dwelling adults (age ≥ 18 yr), from 2004 to 2013.

Patterns and trends in long-term opioid use for non-cancer pain in British Columbia, 2005-2012.

Objectives: We aimed to calculate trends in incidence and prevalence rates of long-term opioid use for non-cancer pain, as well as to describe the characteristics of long-term opioid users and their patterns of opioid use.

Methods: We used population-based linked health care and socio-demographic administrative data for British Columbia (BC) between 2005 and 2012. We included individuals who had at least one episode of long-term opioid use during the study period and who were not cancer or palliative care patients.

Sex differences in the risk of receiving potentially inappropriate prescriptions among older adults.

Objectives: to measure sex differences in the risk of receiving potentially inappropriate prescription drugs and to examine what are the factors that contribute to these differences.

Design: a retrospective cohort study.

Setting: community setting of British Columbia, Canada.

High-Cost Users of Prescription Drugs: A Population-Based Analysis from British Columbia, Canada.

Objective: To examine variation in pharmaceutical spending and patient characteristics across prescription drug user groups.

Data Sources: British Columbia's population-based linked administrative health and sociodemographic databases (N = 3,460,763).

Study Design: We classified individuals into empirically derived prescription drug user groups based on pharmaceutical spending patterns outside hospitals from 2007 to 2011.

Postmarket policy considerations for biosimilar oncology drugs.

Oncology biological products are some of the most expensive drugs on the market and are a growing financial burden on patients and health-care systems. By 2020, numerous major biological cancer drugs will lose their patent protection allowing follow-on competitors, known as biosimilars, to enter the market. Clinical and regulatory considerations for biosimilars have begun to harmonise in Europe and the USA to help to define and streamline the pathway for biosimilar market authorisation.

Geographic Variations in Prescription Opioid Dispensations and Deaths Among Women and Men in British Columbia, Canada.

Objectives: We quantify patterns in prescription opioid dispensations to individuals who suffered a prescription opioid-related death. In addition, we examine the relationship between opioid dispensations and prescription opioid-related deaths in geographic regions of British Columbia (BC).

Methods: We used population-based administrative data on prescription drug dispensations to identify patterns in prescription opioid dispensations to individuals who suffered a prescription opioid-related death.

Trends and sex differences in prescription opioid deaths in British Columbia, Canada.

Increasing rates of prescription opioid-related death are well documented in Ontario (ON) but little is known about prescription opioid-related harms in other Canadian provinces. Using administrative mortality data from 2004 to 2013, we found that rates of prescription opioid-related death in British Columbia (BC) were higher but more stable than published rates for ON over the same period. Methadone was involved in approximately 25% of the prescription opioid-related deaths in BC.

Planning for Sustainability of an Evidence-Based Mental Health Promotion Program in Canadian Elementary Schools.

Substantial research illuminates many factors effecting the implementation of evidence-based mental health promotion programs in schools; however, research on how schools plan for sustaining their investments in these programs is limited. In this qualitative study, we elicited descriptions of opportunities and challenges for sustainability. We interviewed 24 individuals from schools involved in a longitudinal, qualitative research project that followed uptake and implementation of the evidence-based WITS Programs across 2 years (Leadbeater et al.