The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Most patients obtain medications from pharmacies by prescription, but rural general practices can dispense medications. The clinical implications of this difference in drug delivery are unknown. This study hypothesised that dispensing status may be associated with better medication adherence. This could impact intermediate clinical outcomes dependent on medication adherence in, for example, hypertension or diabetes. ⋯ Dispensing practices may achieve better clinical outcomes than prescribing practices. Further work is required to explore underlying mechanisms for these observations and to directly study medication adherence rates.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Influence of polypharmacy on patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a retrospective analysis on adverse outcomes in the TOPCAT trial.
Polypharmacy is common in heart failure (HF), whereas its effect on adverse outcomes in patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is unclear. ⋯ A high prevalence of high medication burden at baseline was reported in patients with HFpEF. The high medication burden might increase the risk of hospital readmission, but not the mortality.
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Many countries have implemented interventions to enhance primary care to strengthen their health systems. These programmes vary widely in features included and their impact on outcomes. ⋯ Most analysed interventions improved some aspects of primary care while, simultaneously, producing non-statistically significant impacts, depending on the features of the interventions, the measured outcome(s), and the populations being studied. A critical research gap was revealed, namely, in terms of which intervention features to enhance primary care (alone or in combination) produce the most consistent benefits.