Pharmacoepidemiology of medicines by cardiovascular diseases

11. SUMMARY Introduction Increasing prevalence of chronic forms of cardiovascular diseases, theirs treatment is lifelong in majority of patients, causes considerable increase of the utilisation of cardiovascular drugs. Considering the fact that healthcare financial resources are restricted, it is necessary to use the drugs effectively and rationally. That is why it is important to study the trends in pharmacotherapy and drug prescribing in the real practice and consequently evaluate the drug use from the epidemiological, economic or social point of view. Objectives The objective of this work was to evaluate several aspects of the cardiovascular drug utilization on the basis of use of several large drug databases and different pharmacoepidemiologic attitudes. Specific issues were addressed in four independent studies: 1) A comparison of cardiovascular drug utilization in selected districts of the Czech Republic and Great Britain. 2) Cardiovascular drug utilisation, mortality and socio-economic inequalities: An ecological study in 20 districts of the Czech Republic. 3) An analysis of the hypertension treatment in general practitioners in the Czech Republic in the 90's. 4) Pleiotropic effects of statins and prevention of diabetes mellitus type 2. 1) A comparison of cardiovascular drug utilization in selected..