Associations between essential medicine listing and health outcomes for cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Context: National essential medicines lists are used to guide medicine selection, appropriate use, medicine reimbursement and public sector medicine procurement for many countries therefore medicine listings may impact health outcomes. Methods: Countries’ national essential medicine lists were scored on whether they listed medicines for ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive heart disease was synthesized. Linear regression was used to measure the association between countries’ medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores. Results: There was no association between medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores when country characteristics were accounted for. However, there was an association between health outcome scores and health expenditure for ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive heart disease. Conclusion: Listing more medicines on national essential medicine lists may not improve health access and quality scores; rather it may only be one factor in reducing mortality from cardiovascular disease.