TY - JOUR
T1 - Information Technology, Improved Access, and Use of Prescription Drugs
AU - Böckerman, Petri
AU - Kortelainen, Mika
AU - Laine, Liisa T.
AU - Nurminen, Mikko
AU - Saxell, Tanja
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - We estimate the effects of health information technology designed to improve access to medication while limiting overuse through easier prescription renewal and improved information provision. We focus on benzodiazepines, a commonly prescribed class of mental health and insomnia medications, which are highly effective but potentially addictive. We study the staggered rollout of a nationwide electronic prescribing system over four years in Finland and use population-wide, individual-level administrative data sets. We find that e-prescribing increases average benzodiazepine use due to increased prescription renewals. The increase is most pronounced for younger patients. E-prescribing can improve the health of elderly patients and may help to balance the access-overuse trade-off. Without additional monitoring for addiction in place, it may, however, also have unintended health consequences for younger patients, who are more likely to develop mental and behavioral health disorders.
AB - We estimate the effects of health information technology designed to improve access to medication while limiting overuse through easier prescription renewal and improved information provision. We focus on benzodiazepines, a commonly prescribed class of mental health and insomnia medications, which are highly effective but potentially addictive. We study the staggered rollout of a nationwide electronic prescribing system over four years in Finland and use population-wide, individual-level administrative data sets. We find that e-prescribing increases average benzodiazepine use due to increased prescription renewals. The increase is most pronounced for younger patients. E-prescribing can improve the health of elderly patients and may help to balance the access-overuse trade-off. Without additional monitoring for addiction in place, it may, however, also have unintended health consequences for younger patients, who are more likely to develop mental and behavioral health disorders.
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=aalto_pure&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001283109800001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85217675859&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/jeea/jvae034
DO - 10.1093/jeea/jvae034
M3 - Article
SN - 1542-4766
VL - 23
SP - 396
EP - 430
JO - Journal of the European Economic Association
JF - Journal of the European Economic Association
IS - 1
ER -