Does removing prescription charges reduce hospital stays for people with low incomes and high health needs?: The FreeMeds Study

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Pharmaceutical funding policy; Public Health - Health service research

• Registration Number: ACTRN12618001486213
• Lead Sponsor: Professor Pauline Norris

Brief Summary

Not available

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Results First Posted: 1900-01-01
• Study Start: 2018-09-04
• Study Completion: 2021-11-23
• Last Update Posted: 4 April 2022

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1063

Inclusion Criteria

Living in one of the study areas (the following towns and surrounding areas: Gisborne, Napier, Hastings, Opotiki, Wairoa, Whakatane, Foxton, Otaki, Levin, Timaru and Oamaru); living in an area of high deprivation (NZDep 7-10) or homeless; and either having diabetes (for which they take medication), on-going mental health problems (for which they take antipsychotics), or COPD

Exclusion Criteria

People who do not consent will be excluded,

Study & Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
All-cause hospital bed-days, as assessed by data linkage with National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) [Assessed as a single timepoint, for the 12 months from 1 Feb 2020]