Utilization of cardiovascular medicines and cardiovascular mortality in Lithuania, Sweden and Norway in 2003–2012

Objective: The aim of this ecological study was to evaluate whether any changes in cardio-vascular (CV) medicine utilization, population, socioeconomic and health system factors were associated with CV mortality in Lithuania, Sweden and Norway in 2003–2012.Materials and methods: CV drug utilization was calculated using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical/Defined Daily Dose (DDD) methodology and expressed as a number of DDD per 1000 inhabitants per day (DDD/TID). The CV age-standardized death rate (CV-SDR) and risk factors data were obtained from the WHO, EUROSTAT, and FAOSTAT databases. The multiple linear regression model was used for modeling outcome measures - the relationship between the CV-SDR and CV medicine utilization including socioeconomic (GDP, unemployment and divorce rate), population (alcohol consumption, smoking and amount of kcal per day, consumption of fruit and vegetables, health status self-evaluation) and health system factors (number of hospital beds, practicing physicians and health care expenditure).Results: The higher CV medicine utilization in Sweden (307–455 DDD/TID, P < 0.001) and Norway (306–394 DDD/TID, P < 0.001) was associated with a definite decline in CV-SDR (in Norway from 215 to 146 and in Sweden from 233 to 174). In Lithuania, the increasing but lower consumption of CV medicines (135–360 DDD/TID, P < 0.001) and twice higher CV-SDR (from 541 to 447) was registered. A significant inverse correlation was observed between CVSDR and DDD/TID. We found a strong association between the DDD/TID and the CV-SDR (R2 = 0.67, P < 0.001). There was a strong correlation between CV-SDR and nine factors (P < 0.05), except the number of practicing physicians, amount of kcal per day. There was a strong correlation between DDD/TID and nine factors (P < 0.05), except the unemployment rate and amount of kcal per day. Association between an increase in the use of medicines and a decrease in CV-SDR was stronger in the case of higher alcohol consumption, higher number of available beds in hospitals and the lower unemployment rate.Conclusions: We confirmed the strong negative correlation between CV medicine utilization and CV mortality in all countries. The strong correlation was found between CV-SDR and nine factors, also between the use of CV medicines and nine factors. The impact of factors on the medicines induced decrease in CV-SDR showed the stronger influence in case of lower unemployment, higher alcohol consumption and higher number of beds for hospitalization.