Generic pharmaceutical drugs in Primary Care pediatrics

Purpose:To know the prescription of generic drugs (GD) by Primary Care pediatricians in a health area. Design: Descriptive cross-section study. Location: Primary Care centres with pediatric office settings in area 4 INSALUDMadrid. Participants: Prescriptions of 64 pediatricians (27 in traditional model and 38 in Primary Care Team) working in area 4 INSALUD-Madrid since january until june 2000. Material and methods: Analysis of the prescriptions in official recipe of the National Health System made by the pediatricians included in the study, analysing the rate of prescription of GD in packings, cost and day dosage. Results: 43,7% of pediatricians in january prescribed more than 4% GD over the total prescriptions, reaching 60,93% in june. Conclusions: GD prescriptions by pediatrians in the area has had an upward evolution during the studied period. Nevertheless, to be able to speak about quality of prescription we have had to take into account the diagnosis in which these GD have been prescribed, purpose that exceeds the objectives of this paper.