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<p>This study analysed primary care medication dispensing in England from 1 November 2019 to 31 December 2024, covering 52.6 million individuals and 5.8 billion dispensed medications. We examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dispensing trends and the distribution of medications across society. Here, we show that the initiation of some medications—notably those for gastrointestinal and mental health conditions—declined and remained below pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, medications for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes showed sharp initial declines followed by recovery to or above pre-pandemic levels. Except for CVD medications, women had higher dispensing rates than men until late adulthood, including twice the volume of some antidepressants among younger adults. By age 50 years, around 15% of the population had been dispensed five or more concurrent medications, rising to 42% by age 70 years. The Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups had higher dispensing rates, with rate ratios of up to 2.5 by age 60 years, and individuals in the most deprived quintile had rates up to twice those of the least deprived by age 40 years. Our findings highlight both the pandemic’s disruption of clinical pathways and potential inequities in medication use, demonstrating the value of medicines intelligence for monitoring and addressing health disparities.</p>

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Patterns of medication use across society from national primary care dispensing data

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月15日

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  • Caroline E. Dale,
  • Rohan Takhar,
  • Andrew Lambarth,
  • Andrew Mason,
  • Nathalie Conrad,
  • Christopher Tomlinson,
  • Spiros Denaxas,
  • Mamas A. Mamas,
  • Andrew D. Morris,
  • Munir Pirmohamed,
  • Kamlesh Khunti,
  • Cathie Sudlow,
  • Angela M. Wood,
  • Naveed Sattar,
  • Reecha Sofat

摘要

This study analysed primary care medication dispensing in England from 1 November 2019 to 31 December 2024, covering 52.6 million individuals and 5.8 billion dispensed medications. We examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dispensing trends and the distribution of medications across society. Here, we show that the initiation of some medications—notably those for gastrointestinal and mental health conditions—declined and remained below pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, medications for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes showed sharp initial declines followed by recovery to or above pre-pandemic levels. Except for CVD medications, women had higher dispensing rates than men until late adulthood, including twice the volume of some antidepressants among younger adults. By age 50 years, around 15% of the population had been dispensed five or more concurrent medications, rising to 42% by age 70 years. The Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups had higher dispensing rates, with rate ratios of up to 2.5 by age 60 years, and individuals in the most deprived quintile had rates up to twice those of the least deprived by age 40 years. Our findings highlight both the pandemic’s disruption of clinical pathways and potential inequities in medication use, demonstrating the value of medicines intelligence for monitoring and addressing health disparities.