Oral Antidiabetes Medication Adherence and Health Care Utilization Among Medicaid-Enrolled Type 2 Diabetic Patients Beginning Monotherapy
- Rahul A. Shenolikar, PHD and
- Rajesh Balkrishnan, PHD
- From Pharmacy Practice and Administration, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
- Address correspondence to Rajesh Balkrishnan, PhD, Ohio State University, 500 W. 12th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: balkrishnan.1{at}osu.edu
We recently conducted a study that examined the associations among medication adherence and health care costs and utilization in diabetic patients. Previous studies that have investigated these relationships did not necessarily examine patients undergoing antidiabetes therapy for the first time (1,2). We included patients who initiated oral monotherapy and continued with the same medication, as the majority of patients begin monotherapy.
The North Carolina Medicaid database was used to identify type 2 diabetic patients aged ≥18 years using at least one ICD-9 code (250.xx, excluding type 1 diabetes codes) and one National Drug Code for antidiabetes medication. Recipients aged ≥65 years …
