Use of benzodiazepine medications in the Brazilian Unified Health System
Description
This database contains information on the dispensing of benzodiazepine medications in thirteen healthcare units of the Unified Health System in a region of the city of São Paulo, Brazil (a region with a population of over 250,000 inhabitants). It contains quantitative data on users, medications and healthcare units, collected over a period of three months. The data comes from thirteen health units. The objective of the study was to characterize the use and users of benzodiazepine medications, in addition to identifying irrational and abusive use of these medications. The information contained in the database was collected from the municipal medication control and dispensing system. In order to collect this information, access authorization was required from the city's health management, in addition to approval of the study by two research ethics committees. The system provides information on all medication withdrawals, including sensitive patient information that was coded in order to preserve their confidentiality and privacy. The research identified high consumption of benzodiazepines in this region by users of the public health system.
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Steps to reproduce
The electronic medication dispensing system records the entries and exits of each medication (tablets, vials and ampoules) from the health units. This control exists for health surveillance purposes, since these are medications subject to special control. This system is the same used in all municipal health units, and provides reports by period. It also allows data to be exported in BI format. To collect the data, it was necessary to access the system using a login and password with permission level to access the movement of medications, including dispensing to patients, with individual records of each pharmacy service. After access, it is possible to choose the health unit where you want to export the data, in report format. This process was carried out with the thirteen public health units that serve the population of this region of the municipality, with approximately 250 thousand inhabitants. The data excludes medications used in the municipal hospital in the region. After collecting the records, the information was grouped, formatted and processed in Microsoft Excel software, which allowed descriptive statistical analysis to be performed, as well as the calculation of the DDD (Defined Daily Doses) of each benzodiazepine. Thus, it was possible to detect the consumption of DDD/thousand inhabitants.