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  • Special Issue: Current evidence and perspectives for hypertension management in Asia
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Prescription of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic: interrupted time series study

Hypertension Research volume 46, pages 2593–2602 (2023)Cite this article

A Comment to this article was published on 29 November 2023

Abstract

We surveyed changes in angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARBs) prescription trends during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan. Data of 1,605,708 outpatients with hypertension were extracted from the Medical Data Vision database. Trends for prescription of ACEIs and ARBs were assessed by analyzing the proportion of these prescriptions in each month, between April 2018 and November 2020. The proportion of ARBs prescriptions changed significantly in trend between the peri-pandemic and pre-pandemic periods (−0.05%/month, P = 0.012). In contrast, the proportion of ACEIs prescriptions did not change significantly in trend in the peri-pandemic period (0.01%/month, P = 0.189). There was no suggestion that the prescribing of ACEIs and ARBs was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital, 1-12-1 Fukumuro, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 983-8512, Japan

    Ryosuke Miura & Kouji Okada

  2. Division of Clinical Pharmaceutics and Pharmacy Practice, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 1-12-1 Fukumuro, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 983-8512, Japan

    Kouji Okada

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RM was involved in the study design, data interpretation, and data analysis. All authors critically revised the report, commented on drafts of the paper, and approved the final paper.

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Correspondence to Ryosuke Miura.

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Miura, R., Okada, K. Prescription of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic: interrupted time series study. Hypertens Res 46, 2593–2602 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-023-01373-0

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