Esophagus to Small Intestine
BMJ. 2024;385:e076484
Impact of large-scale, multicomponent intervention to reduce proton-pump inhibitor overuse in integrated healthcare system: Difference-in-difference study
Objective: To determine how a large-scale, multicomponent, pharmacy-based intervention to reduce proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) overuse affected prescribing patterns, healthcare utilization, and clinical outcomes.
Design: Difference-in-difference study.
Setting: US Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, in which 1 regional network implemented the overuse intervention and all 17 others served as controls.
Participants: All individuals receiving primary care from 2009 to 2019.
Intervention: Limits on PPI refills for patients without a documented indication for long-term use, voiding of PPI prescriptions not recently filled, facilitated electronic prescribing of H2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs), and education for patients and clinicians.
Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the percentage of patients who filled a PPI prescription per 6 months. Secondary outcomes included percentage of days PPI gastroprotection was prescribed in patients at high risk for upper gastrointestinal bleeding, percentage of patients who filled either a PPI or H2RA prescription, hospital admission for acid peptic disease in older adults appropriate for PPI gastroprotection, primary care visits for an upper gastrointestinal diagnosis, upper endoscopies, and PPI-associated clinical conditions.
Results: The number of patients analyzed per interval ranged from 192,607 to 250,349 in intervention sites and from 3,775,953 to 4,360,868 in control sites, with 26% of patients receiving PPIs before the intervention. The intervention was associated with an absolute reduction of 7.3% (95% confidence interval: -7.6% to -7.0%) in patients who filled PPI prescriptions, an absolute reduction of 11.3% (-12.0% to -10.5%) in PPI use among patients appropriate for gastroprotection, and an absolute reduction of 5.72% (-6.08% to -5.36%) in patients who filled a PPI or H2RA prescription. No increases were seen in primary care visits for upper gastrointestinal diagnoses, upper endoscopies, or hospital admissions for acid peptic disease in older patients appropriate for gastroprotection. No clinically significant changes were seen in any PPI-associated clinical conditions.
Conclusions: The multicomponent intervention was associated with reduced proton-pump inhibitor use overall but also in patients appropriate for gastroprotection, with minimal evidence of either clinical benefits or harms.