Aim:

the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has stressed the health system and led to changes in the organization of health centres to treat COVID-19 patients. As a consequence, in primary care a significant decline has been observed in the follow-up, monitoring of patients and diagnosis of chronic diseases. This study aimed to retrospectively analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug treatments in three urban primary healthcare centres.

Methods:

we analysed the pharmacological prescriptions issued by general practitioners between 2017 and 2020. We counted total number of treatments and new treatments for different pharmacological groups. We calculated the annual incidence rate of treated patients and compared incidence rate ratios in 2020 with the mean rate in 2017-2019.

Results:

the pharmacological groups with the greatest reduction in the percentage of patients treated in 2020 compared to the mean of 2017-2019 were antibiotics (-8.5%), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (-5.9%) and anti-ulcer drugs (-2.8%). There was a significant decrease in incidence rates in 2020 compared to the mean of the 2017-2019 period for all pharmacological groups analysed, except for oral anticoagulants and antipsychotics.

Conclusion:

a decreased overall consumption of drugs was observed. There has been a significant decline in new patients commencing treatments in most pharmacological groups analysed.

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