About this item:

41 Views | 18 Downloads

Author Notes:

Omar Dzaye, odzaye@jhmi.edu

PB and OD participated in the conception and drafted the manuscript. AR, RA, KJ, KN, JA, and MB revised subsequent drafts critically for important intellectual content. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

MB reports grants from the National Institutes of Health, US Food and Drug Administration, American Heart Association, Bayer, and Novo Nordisk; Advisory Boards with Amgen, Sanofi, Regeneron, Novartis, Bayer, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Inozye, 89Bio, and Kaleido outside the submitted work. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Subject:

Research Funding:

OD received support from National Institutes of Health grant T32 HL007227.

Keywords:

  • cardiometabolic medicine
  • SGLT 2 inhibitors
  • GLP-1 receptor agonist
  • Google trends
  • national prescription audit

Online searches for SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists correlate with prescription rates in the United States: An infodemiological study

Tools:

Journal Title:

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

Volume:

Volume 9

Publisher:

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

Several clinical trials have demonstrated that many SGLT-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with Type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Recent reports indicate an underutilization of new cardiometabolic drugs, including SGLT2i and GLP-1 RA. We aimed to evaluate the use of online search volumes to reflect United States prescription rates. A repeated cross-sectional analysis of Google search volumes and corresponding data from the IQVIA National Prescription Audit (NPA) of pharmacy dispensing of newly prescribed drugs was performed. Monthly data for online searches and prescription between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2021 were collected for selected SGLT2i and GLP-1 RA. Prescription data for drugs classes (SGLT2i and GLP-1 RA) and individual drugs were calculated as the total of queried data for branded drug names. Trends were analyzed for visual and quantitative correlation as well as predictive patterns. Overall, online searches increased by 157.6% (95% CI: 142.2–173.1%) and 295.2% (95% CI: 257.7–332.6%) for SGLT2i and GLP-1RA between 2016 and 2021. Prescription rates raised by 114.6% (95% CI: 110.8–118.4%) and 221.0% (95% CI: 212.1–229.9%) for SGLT2i and GLP-1RA for this period. Correlation coefficients (range 0.86–0.99) were strongest for drugs with growing number of prescriptions, for example dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, ertugliflozin, dulaglutide, and semaglutide. Online searches might represent an additional tool to monitor the utilization trends of cardiometabolic drugs. Associations were strongest for drugs with reported cardioprotective effect. Thus, trends in online searches complement conventionally acquired data to reflect and forecast prescription trends of cardiometabolic drugs.

Copyright information:

© 2022 Dzaye, Berning, Razavi, Adhikari, Jha, Nasir, Ayers, Mortensen and Blaha.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Export to EndNote