Age, period and cohort effects in the prescription of benzodiazepine and statin in the Netherlands 1994 – 2009. Seminar

Not much is known about drug utilization and its effects in large populations. By studying age, period and cohort (APC) as proxies, additional insight may be gained into the effects of ageing, policy, or even drug side-effects, on drug prescription trends.

We use a large longitudinal dataset (iadb.nl) on drug prescription in the Netherlands. We focus on benzodiazepine and statin. Both drugs have a large number of users, have effects tied to age, have generational differences between users, and have recently undergone policy changes. The research is currently in the exploratory stage: a number of problems, but also avenues for further research, have been found.