Procedimiento sancionatorio

Comorbidity (Two or more conditions) 89 84 72 58

Common comorbid conditions:

Depression 7 8 14 7

Arthritis 44 57 51 44

Heart disease 31 25 46 24

Back Pain 74 71 58 36

Asthma/bronchitis/emphysema 13 14 16 14 Self-rated health: Fair/poor 46 35 52 28

4.5.5. Health care use of women using diabetes medications

Health care use for women with or without diabetes diagnoses and claims for diabetes medications is summarised in Table 4-25. Mid-age women who claimed for diabetes medications had more GP visits and were more likely to see specialists, hospital doctors and pharmacists than women who did not claim for these medications. In other respects the use of those health care services considered here was similar across all groups of women. Likewise, among the Older women those who reported diabetes and made claims for diabetes medications had the highest number of doctor visits.

Table 4-25 Health care use by (a) Younger, (b) Mid-age and (c) Older women using diabetes medications grouped according to whether or not they had ever reported having a diagnosis of diabetes

Characteristic at Survey 4 (unless indicated)

Alternative practitioner in 12 months

Naturopath/herbalist 5 8 24 13

b) Mid-age cohort

Characteristic at Survey 4 (unless indicated)

Alternative practitioner in 12 months

Naturopath/herbalist 5 17 12 11

c) Older cohort

Characteristic at Survey 4 (unless

indicated) % % % %

Private health cover-hospital 37 41 54 45 GP visits in last 12 months

0-4 18 28 30 37

5-12 57 53 31 48

13 or more 25 19 40 14

Specialist visit in last 12 months 79 68 69 67 Hospital doctor in 12 months 26 25 31 19 Allied health in 12 months

Physiotherapist 18 18 20 19

Podiatrist 45 33 43 31

Optician 50 52 51 46

Dentist 42 42 44 46

Alternative heath practitioner in last 12 months

6 10 3 10

4.6. Discussion

This section examined medications for four common chronic conditions. The first, asthma, is a condition that is increasing in prevalence in all cohorts. By Survey 4, 30% of Younger women, 20% of Mid-age women and 15% of Older women had reported having doctor-diagnosed asthma, but not all women reporting asthma had claims for asthma medications. However, it is unlikely that the PBS data fully reflect asthma medication use as some asthma medications can be purchased over-the-counter without prescription. As such, the lower rate of use of medications among Younger women, married women and those with higher levels of education may reflect that these women are purchasing medications off prescription, or that they are using fewer medications. Likewise women who had claims for arthritis medications were also more likely to have lower education and to have more difficulty managing on their income. However, as for asthma, not all arthritis medications are reflected in PBS data.

Medications for CVD and diabetes are more likely to be reflected in PBS data. Examination of PBS claims for medications for these conditions indicates that these medications are in common use among women in the Mid-age and Older cohorts. Claims for medications for CVD conditions, principally angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensine II (AII) receptor antagonist, statins and beta blockers were identified for 33% of the Mid-age women and 80% of the Older women. Statins were commonly used by women who reported a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension heart disease and/or stroke who are at increased risk of a primary or secondary CVD event.

Patterns of use of diabetes medications varied across the cohorts, with Younger women who reported having a doctor diagnosis of diabetes being more likely to have claims for insulin whereas Mid-age and Older women were more likely to have claims for oral blood glucose lowering drugs. About half the Mid-age women and more than 40% of the Older women who had ever reported diabetes did not make claims for diabetes medications. This suggests that many of these women were being successfully managed by diet and lifestyle modification alone.

Lifestyle factors are known to be important risk factors for these conditions, however they may also impact on women’s needs for medications to treat these conditions. Across all cohorts, women claiming for asthma, arthritis, CVD and diabetes medications were more likely to be overweight or obese than women not claiming the medications; and among older women those using asthma medications were more likely to be smokers. Attention to these risks and conditions may be important for reducing the need for medications even among those women who have established conditions.

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