ISSN : 0975-9492
CODEN : IJPSQQ





INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMA SCIENCES AND RESEARCH


Open Access

This website is certified by Health On the Net Foundation. Click to verify.

This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information:
verify here.

ABSTRACT

Title : The cost of high blood pressure treatment from 2010 to 2015 - A multi-country affordability analysis
Authors : Mohammad Bashaar, Tafseera Hashemi
Keywords : Hypertension, Affordability, Antihypertensive, Impoverishment, Medicine prices, High Blood Pressure
Issue Date : Jul 2019
Abstract :
Introduction: The access to affordable medicines has always been a challenge for healthcare systems, therefore, the research conducted with the aim to assess the cost of high blood pressure. Materials and Methods: The data on antihypertensive drugs prices were extracted from WHO/HAI database. This database contains data from countries where medicine price, availability and affordability studies have been conducted using WHO/HAI methodology. Data from 2001 to 2015 was included from61 countries focusing on 15 antihypertensive drugs. To elaborate the affordability measures, medicines costing < 1.5 days wages excluded and thus only eight antihypertensive medicines from 16 countries in both public and private sectors included. For each medicine, the branded and generic versions were investigated. For affordability measurement, the WHO/HAI method of considering lowest-paid unskilled government worker and impoverishment method of Van Doorslaer et al were employed. Independent-samples t-test conducted to compare medicine affordability. MS. Excel and SPSS version 23 used for analysis. Results: The generic Nifedipine 20 mg tab (retard) was found the most unaffordable antihypertensive in the private sector of Kyrgyzstan, where the lowest-paid government worker required 16.7 days of wages to purchase. In Indonesia, the branded Captopril 25 mg, purchase required 12 days wages. In Tajikistan’s public health sector, the most unaffordable antihypertensive was the branded Captopril 25 mg, required 9.1 days of wages. In Shaanxi Province of China, the generic Losartan 50 mg cap/tab required 5 days wages. The impoverishing effect of antihypertensive was burdensome in the public health sector of Tajikistan, Moldova, and Sudan, where the government workers pushed below an income level of US$2 per day after buying medications/drugs. Significant difference observed between branded and generics in terms of affordability. Conclusion: This study calls for further strengthening healthcare system and promoting generic antihypertensive.
Page(s) : 200-212
ISSN : 0975-9492
Source : Vol. 10, No.7