Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Apr 2012
ReviewCommunity pharmacists' adoption of medicines reclassified from prescription-only status: a systematic review of factors associated with decision making.
Subsequent to reclassification of legal status, more than 90 prescription-only medicines have become available in the UK alone without a prescription. Similar changes are taking place internationally. The aim was to systematically review studies reporting factors associated with community pharmacists' decision making around adoption of these reclassified medicines into practice. ⋯ Patient safety appears to be the key to pharmacists' decision making. However, the study quality limitations indicate the need for further robust research. The 28 factors identified in this systematic review from international literature can aid rigorous research instrument development for future evaluations.
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Apr 2012
Records linkage of electronic databases for the assessment of adverse effects of antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2009, the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia decided to conduct a confirmatory assessment of the risk of anemia associated with zidovudine (AZT)-based highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) using records contained in three electronic databases. These records did not share a unique identifying number. The first step was to apply probabilistic record linkage methods to link records in the three databases. ⋯ Probabilistic record linkage methods were effective for records linkage in this sub-Saharan African setting.