The crucial question of standardisation when measuring drug consumption

The reliability of drug consumption studies will depend on agreement on an international unit of measurement and the provision of accurate descriptions of patterns of use. This measurement unit should permit comparisons between countries and periods of time. Different units have been proposed and published. Consumption may be expressed in terms of pharmaceutical firm turnover, therapeutic costs, weight (total weight or dose equivalent), treatment doses such as defined daily dose and prescribed daily dose, or as number of items or packages sold. The advantages and disadvantages of the different evaluation units used in veterinary medicine are reviewed. drug consumption / unit of measurement / veterinary medicine / drug statistics / DDD Rsum -valuation de la consommation mdicamenteuse : le problme de la standardisation. L'tude des consommations mdicamenteuses requiert une unit de mesure internationale applicable aux diffrentes mthodes de recueil des donnes et permettant une description la plus complte possible des consommations. Les comparaisons gographiques, temporelles et entre usages doivent galement tre possibles. Diffrents systmes unitaires ont t dvelopps selon ces diffrents critres et impratifs. Ces units peuvent tre conomiques (chiffres d'affaire des firmes pharmaceutiques ou cots thrapeutiques), pondrales (poids total ou converti en dose active), lies au traitement (dose dfinie journalire, dose quotidienne prescrite) ou pratiques (nombre de conditionnements vendus). Une revue des diffrentes units utilises en mdecine vtrinaire est ici prsente.