Proton pump inhibitors prescriptions in France: Main trends from 2006 to 2016 on French health insurance database

Because national data on proton pump inbibitors (PPIs) consumption in France are scarce and because there is a growing literature on potential adverse drug reaction induced by this pharmacological class, we would like to more describe the main evolution of PPI use and the main characteristics of its users in France. We used a 1/97th representative sample of beneficiaries of the French health insurance called “échantillon généraliste des bénéficiaires” (EGB) to describe PPIs' use over time (duration of use by year) from 2006 to 2016. In 2016, 108,249 patients had at least 1 dispensing of PPI (i.e. 19.5% of EGB versus 16.5% in 2006). The part of patients with only 1 reimbursement of PPI by years decreased from 43.9% in 2006 to 39.0% in 2016. Among the patient with at least 2 PPI dispensing/years, the mean number of dispensing increased from 6.2 ± 4.2 in 2006 to 6.9 in 2016. The over 75 year's old group is particularly concerned by the increase in both duration and dosage over the period of study, as mean DDD per year increased by 31% and mean number of dispensing per year by 17% from 2006 to 2016. Based on these results, PPI users could almost represent 11 million peoples in France (13 million on a whole population) in 2016. Initiatives to assess the appropriateness of use of these drugs might be warranted.