• Family practice · May 2022

    Outpatient prescription patterns of COVID-19 drugs in the metropolitan area of Mexico City.

    • Maria F Fuentes-Gonzalez, Ordinola NavarroAlbertoADepartment of Infectious diseases. Hospital de Especialidades 'Dr. Antonio Fraga Mouret', Centro Médico Nacional La Raza del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico., Zully Carmona-Aguilera, Carlos A Hernández-Jimenez, Gustavo M Benitez-Altamirano, Luis D Beltran-Ontiveros, Cesar Lopez-Vejar, Juan P Ramirez-Hinojosa, Olga Vera-Lastra, and Bruno A Lopez Luis.
    • Department of Infectious Disease, Hospital Manuel Gea González, Mexico City, Mexico.
    • Fam Pract. 2022 May 28; 39 (3): 515518515-518.

    BackgroundWe aimed to describe the use of drugs with apparent efficacy in ambulatory patients with confirmed COVID-19 and the relationship of Google Trends searches with prescriptions and the total number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico City.MethodsBetween March 2020 and February 2021, we surveyed 350 patients confirmed to have COVID-19 across 3 hospitals in Mexico City for their ambulatory prescriptions. We analysed the correlation between prescription patterns of 4 drugs with apparent efficacy against COVID-19, Google Trends searches for these drugs, and the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mexico City.ResultsWe included 350 patients, of whom 59% were women with a median age of 38 years (interquartile range, 29-51), and 72% had a bachelor's degree or higher. There were ambulatory medical prescriptions in 172 (49%) patients, and self-prescriptions were reported in 99 (28%) patients. The prescription rate was high for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin (19%) and dexamethasone (25%). There was a decrease in the prescription of hydroxychloroquine (P < 0.001) and a strong positive correlation between hydroxychloroquine (r = 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.11-0.90; P = 0.02) prescription and online searches for hydroxychloroquine. There was a strong positive correlation between online searches for azithromycin, dexamethasone, ivermectin, and vitamin D and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.ConclusionsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a high proportion of prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin and dexamethasone despite their unproven efficacy. Analysis of Google Trends showed a strong correlation between the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and searches for such drugs, suggesting a higher rate of prescriptions. Analysis of online searches could thus help to actively survey public health behaviours in the future.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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