A methodological protocol for selecting and quantifying low-value prescribing practices in routinely collected data: an Australian case study

Table 4 Dataset requirements for quantifying exemplar low-value prescribing practice examples

Indicator components	Prescribing practice
Indicator components	1. Antibiotics in URTIs	2. Benzodiazepines in elderly	3. Long-term PPIs	4. Antipsychotics in dementia	5. Antibiotics in bacteriuria	6. NSAIDs in elderly	7. Testosterone	8. Primary prevention in limited life	9. Antipsychotic polypharmacy
Dispensing data
Patient demographics^a		X		X		X		X
Initiation (date of dispensing)	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Discontinuation^b			X
Concomitant use^b									X
Switching^b
Comorbidity^b				X				X
Fact of death								X
Prescribing data
Patient demographics^a		X				X
Initiation	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Discontinuation			X
Concomitant use									X
Switching
Indication stated by prescriber	X		X	X	X		X	X
Test ordering					X		X
Comorbidities				X				X
Hospitalisation data
Co-morbidity (ICD-10 code)				X			X	X
Pathology data
Test results					X		X
Death data
Date of death								X
Cancer data
Cancer diagnosis								X

Prescribing practices correspond with exemplar practices listed in Table 3. An ‘X’ marks where a component indicator corresponds to a component within a prescribing practice
^aIncludes age, gender, geographic location of residence
^bProxy measures (i.e. the result of decision rules applied to existing variables)