Challenges facing drug utilization research in the Latin American region
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Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
Abstract
Purpose
The International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) in collaboration with the Latin
America Drug Utilization Research Group (LatAm DURG), the Medicines Utilization Research in
Africa (MURIA) group, and the Uppsala Monitoring Center, is leading an initiative to understand
challenges to drug utilization research (DUR) in the Latin American (LatAm) and African regions
with the goal of communicating results and proposing solutions to these challenges in four
scientific publications. The purpose of this first manuscript is to identify the main challenges
associated with DUR in the LatAm region.
Methods
Drug utilization (DU) researchers in the LatAm region voluntarily participated in multiple
discussions, contributed with local data and reviewed successive drafts and the final
manuscript. Additionally, we carried out a literature review to identify the most relevant
publications related to DU studies from the LatAm region.
Results
Multiple challenges were identified in the LatAm region for DUR including socioeconomic
inequality, access to medical care, complexity of the healthcare system, limited investment in
research and development, limited institutional and organization resources, language barriers,
limited health education and literacy. Further, there is limited use of local DUR data by decision
makers particularly in the identification of emerging health needs coming from social and
demographic transitions.
Conclusions
The LatAm region faces challenges to DUR which are inherent in the healthcare and political
systems, and potential solutions should target changes to the system.
Description
Keywords
Drug utilization, Pharmacoepidemiology, Africa
Citation
Salas, M., Lopes, L.C., Godman, B., Truter, I., Hartzema, A.G., Wettermark, B., Fadare, J., Burger, J.R., Appenteng, K., Donneyong, M. and Arias, A., 2020. Challenges facing drug utilization research in the Latin American region. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 29(11), pp.1353-1363.