THE SOCIOECONOMIC PROFILE OF PATIENTS TREATED BY PHLEBOTROPIC DRUGS IN GERMANY

Conservative treatment of venous disease is difficult. There is much s kepticism concerning the efficacy of drugs in venous diseases. Neverth eless, in Germany, these drugs have obtained a substantial market shar e with a tendency to increase. The objective of this empirical study i s to evaluate the socioeconomic characteristics of consumers of venous medications and to explore the demand elasticity with respect to heal th insurance coverage. In a first set of inquiries 12,500 households w ere asked from July to September 1993 if they had purchased prescribed venous medication during the past 12 months. About 10,000 households with 19,750 persons aged fifteen years and older responded; 2,080 (11% ) of those persons had consumed prescribed medications against venous disease over the past twelve months. In the second part of the study a detailed questionnaire was sent to the 2,080 purchasers and to 3,000 randomly selected nonpurchasers; 1,930 (92.8%) purchasers and 2,291 (7 6.4%) nonpurchasers returned their questionnaire. The key findings can be summarized as follows: The percentage of women is much higher in t he group of purchasers (80%) than in the group of nonpurchasers. Most of the purchasers are over fifty years old. Only one quarter of the pu rchasers are under fifty. One third of the purchasers are retired, and only 29% are working. In the group of nonpurchasers 56% are working a nd only 17% are retired, A comparison of the distribution of purchaser s and nonpurchasers over income classes and education levels shows tha t higher income and higher education are less prevalent in the group o f consumers of venous medications. Varicose veins (58%) and various le g complications (30%) and pain in the legs (30%) of play a dominant ro le for applying venous medications. The analysis shows that pregnancy and chronic diseases are risk factors far venous diseases and are more prevalent in the purchasers group, We did not, however, discover a si gnificant: difference in the share of smelters, and it is quite low in the group of purchasers (14%). Only 45% of tl-re purchasers feel that their venous disease has a negative influence on their spare-time act ivities, their family life, or their work. Purchasers consult a physic ian on the average 3.7 times a year; 40% of the managers, merchants, a nd self-employed craftsmen have no physician consultation at till. ' O wing to the pain and trouble of some complications of venous disease, only a relatively low percentage of purchasers would react to a reduct ion of health insurance coverage of venous medications; 5% would stop buying these drugs and 22% would reduce consumption if they would have to pay the cost out-of-pocket.