All-cause mortality of elderly Australian veterans using COX-2 selective or non-selective NSAIDs: a longitudinal study.

What Is Already Known About This Subject: • Previous studies have found varying impact of exposure to COX-2 selective and non-selective NSAIDs.

What This Study Adds: • Individuals receiving a COX-2 selective NSAID had an increased risk of all-cause mortality after correction for age, sex and cardiovascular risk as measured by co-prescription. • Despite differences in the pharmacokinetic properties of the COX-2 selective inhibitor drugs, our study lends no support to clinicians preferring any one COX-2 selective inhibitor drug, or substituting one for another on the grounds of mortality risk alone.

Dosing frequencies in general practice--Whose decision and why?

Background: Little is known about patient preference for dosing frequency (daily, weekly or monthly). Patient preferences and attitudes among women over 60 years of age were studied. Condition, medication experience and perceived control were assessed against preference.

Acute bronchitis in Australian general practice. A prescription too far?

Objective: To quantify how frequently general practitioners in Australia prescribe antibiotics for acute bronchitis, which antibiotics are used, and whether there are subgroups of patients who might benefit from their use.

Design And Setting: A retrospective descriptive study using 3 sets of data: Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network, the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) Program, and the General Practice Research Network (GPRN).

Results: Over 50% of all patients with 'acute bronchitis' had either chest or one or more systemic signs on physical examination.

Lessons from early large-scale adoption of celecoxib and rofecoxib by Australian general practitioners.

Objective: To assess trends in the first two years of prescribing of COX-2-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (C2SNs) by Australian general practitioners.

Design: Retrospective analysis of deidentified electronic patient records from GPs enrolled in the General Practice Research Network (GPRN).

Setting And Participants: Overall prescription rates for C2SNs and NSAIDs were assessed for all GPRN participants (437 GPs) between 1 September 1999 and 30 September 2002.

The General Practice Research Network: the capabilities of an electronic patient management system for longitudinal patient data.

Purpose: To evaluate the potential of a general practice research database derived directly from de-identified electronic medical records to provide national prescribing data in Australia. To observe the utilisation of a computer-based patient management system over time. To evaluate the impact of the research network participation on data quality in participants' electronic records.