Norwegian Prescription Database 2014–2018
Report
|Updated
|The report contains key figures and a comprehensive table with information about the number of people who have been dispensed prescription drugs from pharmacies in Norway in the last five year period.
Key message
Since the Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD) was established on 1 January 2004, 5.8 million individuals have been included in the database with at least one drug dispensed from a pharmacy. The number of drugs dispensed to patients in the same period is about 620 millions.
NorPD contains information from all Norwegian pharmacies regarding the dispensing of drugs to individuals, to prescribers' own practice and to institutions. In 2018, about 97% of the drugs registered
in NorPD (measured in DDD) were dispensed to individuals. Sales of over-the-counter drugs are not included in NorPD.
General information about the NorPD, drug statistics, classification of drugs and measurement methods
is included in part 1 of the report. Part 2 contains selected key figures from the NorPD and the main tables with information about the number of individuals who had drugs dispensed from pharmacies in Norway during the last five years (2014–2018). In 2018, 70% of the Norwegian population received at least one prescription drug, 77% of the women and 64% of the men (Table 2.1.a in the report).
The one-year prevalence in the population who had at least one drug dispensed in 2018 was lowest in the age group 5–9 years for both women and men (Figure 2.1 in report). Between 92% and 95% of the individuals aged 70 and older were dispensed at least one drug. Table 2.1.b shows the one-year prevalence in the population for each of the 14 ATC main groups; total and the distribution between women and men. The three drug groups most commonly used by both women and men are anti-infectives (ATC group J), drugs affecting the nervous system (ATC group N) and drugs used for respiratory diseases (ATC group R).
Table 2.1.c gives an overview of the most commonly used drugs (number of users/prevalence, defined as
ATC 5th levels) in Norway in 2018.
The NorPD has a website where you can find additional information: www.norpd.no (English version)
or www.reseptregisteret.no (Norwegian version).
