Is age the key determinant of prescribing demand?
Results from the ASSET (Age/Sex Standardised Estimates of Treatment) study • Giampiero Favato, Academic Fellow Henley Management College, Greenlands, RG9 3AU UK Understanding the determinants of demand for pharmaceuticals is critical for a better assessment of the forces that increase prescribing expenditures. Ageing and technological change play a major role in this context with cohorts living longer that consume increasing amounts of intensive, previously unavailable treatments. The primary objective of the ASSET study (1) was to make the first step in the modelling of pharmaceutical demand in Italy, by deriving a weighted capitation model to account for demographic differences among general practices. The experimental model was called ASSET (Age/Sex Standardised Estimates of Treatment). Individual prescription costs and demographic data referred to 3,175,691 Italian subjects were collected directly from three Regional Health Authorities over the 12-month period between September 200
