The influences of Taiwan's generic grouping price policy on drug prices and expenditures: Evidence from analysing the consumption of the three most-used classes of cardiovascular drugs

Table 1 Characteristics of hypertension patients

	Exposure group		Comparison group
	N	%	N	%
Beta blocking agents
Number of patients	553	1064	511
Gender
Male	280	50.63	258	50.49
Female	273	49.37	253	49.51
Birth year
1960 or after	16	2.89	21	4.11
1940–1959	219	39.60	224	43.84
1920–1939	294	53.16	248	48.53
1919 or before	24	4.34	18	3.52
Calcium channel blockers, vascular effects
Number of patients	635	1202	567
Gender
Male	332	52.28	299	52.73
Female	303	47.72	268	47.27
Birth year
1960 or after	14	2.20	17	3.00
1940–1959	215	33.86	213	37.57
1920–1939	361	56.85	316	55.73
1919 or before	45	7.09	21	3.70
ACE inhibitors, plain
Number of patients	272	560	288
Gender
Male	155	56.99	179	62.15
Female	117	43.01	109	37.85
Birth year
1960 or after	9	3.31	10	3.47
1940–1959	112	41.18	92	31.94
1920–1939	132	48.53	169	58.68
1919 or before	19	6.99	17	5.90

ISSN: 1471-2458