Definitions
Drugs
You can search by product name (as marketed in Norway), active ingredient or Anatomical Therapeutic Classification (ATC) code for drugs.
If you search for a product name, your results will often display an ATC code with several product names. Users of all the products with the same ATC code will be included in the report. For example, if you search for the number of users of the drug Zocor®, the database will supply total statistics for all products with the same ATC code containing simvastatin (the active ingredient of Zocor). The ATC classification that is valid from January of the year of the latest database update, is used in this website.
Number of users/Prevalence per 1000
A
user is defined as a person who has had at least one prescription dispensed in a pharmacy during the period.
In the database, you can find the number of users of a particular drug/drug category per year in a defined population selection (sex, age, residence). Prevalence is defined as the number of users per 1000 inhabitants.
In the NorPD, every individual is allocated a serial number, a so-called pseudonym. This makes it possible to link drug use to individuals and follow their consumption over time, without knowing their identities. A person who has collected numerous prescriptions for the same drug, is only counted once.
Many patients use more than one drug, for example, both antidepressants and sleeping tablets. If you search for statistics for each category, people will be counted in both groups. Do not compile the two totals to find out the number of users of both drugs because the results will be artificially high.
Population base
You can see which population figures are used to calculate the number of users per 1000 inhabitants. An inhabitant’s residence is defined as their place of residence on 1st January each year, to avoid duplicated data if the person moves during the year. This can cover the whole country’s population or a selection based on sex, age (in 10-year groups) or residence (by health region/county).
Turnover by value (pharmacy retail price in Norwegian kroner)
You can select total turnover from pharmacies for the drugs that are in the selection for every search.
Turnover by dosage (DDD)
You can select the total amount of doses (DDD – defined daily dosage) for drugs in the search.
The measurement unit DDD is defined as the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. It is important to be aware that, in many cases, the prescribed dose may deviate from the DDD. The DDD should only be considered as a technical unit of measurement. The DDD version valid from January of the year of the latest database update, is used in this website.
Read more about DDD in ”Drug Consumption in Norway” (available in English) at
www.drugconsumption.no
