scholarly journals PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF DRUGS USED IN PAEDIATRIC PATIENTS IN OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT OF A TERTIARY CARE INSTITUTION

Author(s):  
Nitika Hans

Background: Paediatric prescription is a major concern in terms of public health since infections are the most frequent cause of childhood disease. The aim of this hospital-based observational prospective study was to assess the pattern of drug use in the paediatric outpatient department attached to government medical college, Amritsar.   Methods: A prospective study of six months duration was carried out for the month of October 2020 to March 2021. A total number of 201 patients case sheets were utilized for our study from paediatric out-patients department of GNDH, Amritsar. The data collected was then analysed for various prescribing indicators as laid down by world health organisation (WHO) for analysis of drug use parameters. Results:  The average number of drugs per encounter was 2.52. In present study antibiotic were 18% of total drugs prescribed. Antihistaminics prescribed were 25%. Syrup was the most prescribed dosage form.  %age of drugs prescribed from essential drugs list was 60.3%.  Polypharmacy was evident from the study. Conclusions: Drug prescribing in children is relatively high in GNDH, Amritsar. This study revealed deviation in prescribing pattern from WHO core prescribing indicators. Possible reasons are heavy patient load, lack of essential drug list, insufficient government supply of generic drugs and lack of regular prescription audits. Keywords: prescription pattern, observational study, Paediatric, WHO core prescribing indicators.

Author(s):  
Aravinda Kumar

Background: Periodic assessment of drug prescribing and dispensing pattern in a hospital facility shall play a major role in avoiding the inappropriate use of drugs which leads to potential hazards and expenses for the patients.Methods: The objective of the study was to analyse the patterns of drug use and dispensing in dermatology outpatient prescriptions from a tertiary care teaching hospital in south India. Data were collected over a period of one month from patients attending dermatology outpatient department by scrutinizing 100 prescriptions and analyzed using WHO formulated “core drug use indicators” like the format, prescribing pattern and rationality of prescriptions.Results: The total number of drugs prescribed in 100 prescriptions was 233 i.e. on average 2.33 drugs were prescribed per patient. The patient's name and age were mentioned in all the prescriptions while diagnosis, dose, route of administration, dosage form, duration of therapy and prescriber's identity was written in 43.29%, 68.04%, 69.07%, 100%, 49.48% and 63.91% prescriptions respectively. Out of all drugs, 42.91% were generic drugs and 57.08% were from National Essential Drug List of India. Steroids (18.02%) were the most common group of drugs used, followed by keratolytics and emollients (15.87%). Most of the drugs were given by topical route (47.63%).Conclusions: A prescription by a doctor is a reflection of physicians’ attitude towards the disease and the role of drug in its treatment. It also provides an insight into the nature of health care at that facility. Interventions to rectify over proper prescription format and prescription of generic drugs are necessary to further improve rational drug use in this facility.


Author(s):  
Shuchisuta P. Pathy ◽  
Sachchidanand Pandey ◽  
Bhabagrahi Rath ◽  
Rinu Rani Dash

Background: Drug utilization research provides insights into different aspects of drug use and drug prescribing such as pattern, quality, determinants and outcomes of drug use. Polypharmacy is considered to be hazardous for the elderly, because of their greater vulnerability to drugs and multiple drug use. Prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) has been found to be a common cause of morbidity and mortality among the geriatric population and has necessitated the creation of criteria for the safe use of medicines among them. Objectives of the study were to assess the drug utilization pattern in geriatric patients and analyse their prescriptions as per the World Health Organization (WHO) core prescribing indicators and STOPP and START criteria.Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2019 to August 2019 in inpatient department of general medicine of VIMSAR, Burla. Prescriptions of ≥65 year patients were collected and documented by active surveillance from the medicine ward.Results: Majority of the patients were in age group of 65-75. Stroke is the more common comorbidities among geriatric population. Average number of medication per prescription is 5.42. About 78.74% of drugs are injectable. The percentage of antibiotics prescribed to patient is 27.75%. Based on STOPP criteria potentially inappropriate medications PIM is 7% and START criteria PIM is 29%.Conclusions: Our study suggests that prevalence of polypharmacy was high which is usually unavoidable in geriatric patients and less PIM is suggestive of adherence to WHO core prescribing indicators, and prescription of drugs as per STOPP and START guidelines are indicative of scope for improvement.


Author(s):  
Rucha M. Shinde ◽  
Anand S. Kale ◽  
Mahadeo P. Sawant

Background: Drug utilization study is an important tool to study the clinical use of drugs and its impact on healthcare system. DUS in patients with HTN and DM is essential to observe the changing prescribing attitude of physicians with the aim to promote rational use of drugs and to minimize the adverse drug reactions.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted on randomly selected patients attending medicine outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital. Drug prescription sheets of 600 patients were studied for 18 months from January 2016 to June 2017 and the prescribing pattern was analysed using the World Health Organization basic drug indicators.Results: Total 2029 drugs were prescribed to 600 patients that belonged to various classes. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 3.4. Majority (61.5%) drugs were prescribed using generic names. Percentage encounters with the antibiotics and injections were 6.3 and 11.5 per cent respectively. 38% drugs were prescribed from the 20th edition of WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. PDD in the current study was found to be significantly less than WHO DDD in all drugs. All of the prescriptions in the present study conformed to WHO guidelines and majority of them with JNC VIII guidelines.Conclusions: The findings of this study are comparable to those of other studies. However, there is a scope of improvement in areas such as overdosing, prescribing more by generic names instead of brand names and from WHO Model List of Essential Medicines.


Author(s):  
Arun Patil ◽  
Darshana Dighe ◽  
Shrikrishna Kolte ◽  
Pradeep R. Jadhav ◽  
Y. A. Deshmukh

Background: Skin diseases are common and cause a huge disease burden globally. Different class of drugs and combinational products are available in dermatology for treatment. Periodic prescription analysis in the form of drug utilization study can improve the quality of prescription and curb the menace of irrational prescribing. Aim and objective of the study were to study the prescribing pattern and drug utilization trends in Dermatology outpatient department at a tertiary care hospital in Navi Mumbai.Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted over a period of three months in dermatology department of a tertiary care teaching hospital, Navi-Mumbai. A total of 102 adult patients visiting dermatology OPD were included and their prescriptions were analyzed with WHO prescribing indicators and additional indices.Results: Analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.27. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 31.1%. Percentage of drugs prescribed from National Essential drug list (NEDL) was 44.2%. The commonest prescribed drugs were antihistaminics followed by antifungals. Oral tablets were the commonest prescribed dosage form.Conclusions: Antihistaminics and antifungals dominated the prescribing pattern in this study with restraint on polypharmacy, but showed ample scope for improvement to prescribe generic and selection of essential drugs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-S) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Ritty Sara Cherian ◽  
Gaddam Mrudula Stuthy ◽  
Dhanush Salin

Aim of the study: To monitor the drug use patterns by using WHO prescribing indicators in a tertiary care hospital and to minimise the irrational prescribing practices by the prescribers. To monitor the drug use patterns by using WHO prescribing indicators in a tertiary care hospital and to minimise the irrational prescribing practices by the prescribers. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study, the patients who were satisfying the inclusion criteria will be enrolled into the study. The patient’s data were collected in specially designed documentation form. The collected data’s were assessed using descriptive statistics. Results: The study was conducted in 143 patients in which the average number of drugs per encounters was 3.5 and the percentage of drugs in the generic name was 37.10% (n=190), and in brand names were 62.89% (n=322). The number of encounters with antibiotics was 61.5% and where as 57.35% of the total drugs prescribed was injections. Most of the medicines prescribed were included in the list of essential medicines of India that is 96.09% and without use of antibiotics 38.46% (n=55). Conclusion: Poly pharmacy leads to drug chances of interactions and risk of ADRs and revealed that most of the patients were prescribed with the poly pharmacy and in brand names.  The use of antibiotics was much more in the study, which should be minimize so that antimicrobial resistance can be minimized. Keywords: adverse drug reaction, essential drug list, prescribing indicators


Author(s):  
R. P. Priyadharsini ◽  
R. Kesavan

Background: The usage of antibiotics among paediatric age group in India is on the higher side, that more than 60% of children in the age group 0 to 4 years received antibiotics. The higher use of antibiotics results in antibiotic resistance, increased health care costs, adverse drug reaction and may complicate the treatment of infections in future. There is a continuous need to monitor the prescription of antibiotics at all health care levels to prevent antibiotic resistance.Methods: A prospective and descriptive study was conducted in one of the pharmacies which dispenses the paediatric prescriptions in a tertiary hospital. The prescriptions used to treat infection were collected and analysed. A total of 500 prescriptions were collected and analysed.Results: The prescriptions were analysed for the WHO prescribing indicators. The average number of drugs per prescription is 1.84 with 21% of the prescriptions containing antibiotics. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were penicillin like amoxycillin, phenoxymethyl penicillin followed by cotrimoxazole and cephalosporin group of antibiotics. The antibiotics prescribed belonged to the access group of antibiotics. The percentage of the prescriptions with drugs form essential drugs list and prescribed with generic name is 65.8% and 67% respectively. There were no injections prescribed.Conclusions: The antibiotic prescribing pattern and the average drugs per prescription falls with the WHO range indicating reduced use of antibiotics and absence of polypharmacy. However, the prescription of generic drugs and the drugs from the essential drug list is less.


Author(s):  
Jyothsnya Srinivasa ◽  
Vijaya Rajendran ◽  
Pratibha Nadig ◽  
Shubhatara Swamy

Background: Antibiotics are the most commonly used and misused of all drugs. Patterns of antibiotic resistance widely follows local patterns of antibiotic prescribing and usage. Periodic data collection and analysis of antibiotic prescriptions at regional level are essential to understand and combat antibiotic resistance. Objective of the study was to study the prescribing pattern of antibiotics in outpatient department of Otorhinolaryngology in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: A prospective observational study of prescribing pattern of antibiotics was conducted in the department of Otorhinolaryngology. Data of antibiotic utilization in outpatient department was collected through duplicate copies of the prescriptions. The data obtained was analyzed and the conclusions were drawn using descriptive analysis.Results: A total of 606 prescriptions were collected and analyzed during the study. Average number of antibiotics prescribed per prescription was 1.24 most of the antibiotics were prescribed for a duration of 1 to 5 days. Commonly prescribed antibiotic class was penicillin (48.1%) followed by quinolone (18.3%). Most of the antibiotics were prescribed by their brand names (98.8%).Conclusions: The present study highlights the wide use of extended spectrum antibiotics, along with brand names for prescribing. Interventions for prescribing of generic drugs from the essential drug list needs to be encouraged among physicians.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Mohammad Afsan ◽  
Muhammad Mahbubul Alam ◽  
Nushrat Noor ◽  
AH Hamid Ahmed

A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among individuals attending the Out Patient Department (OPD) of Medicine, Paediatrics, Dermatology & Venerology, ENT, Orthopaedics and Gynaecology & Obstetrics from December 2011 to March 2012 in East-West Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, to see the patterns of prescriptions using World Health Organization (WHO) core prescribing indicators and some additional indices. A total of 300 prescriptions were collected and analyzed by the 3rd year MBBS students in this study. The average number of drugs per encounter was 3.22 and 5.33% drugs were prescribed by generic name. Use of antibiotic (48.67% of encounters) was frequent, but injection use (6.67% of encounters) was within the recommendation of WHO. Only 26.09% drugs were prescribed from national essential drug list. Percentage of encounters with a NSAID, an anti-ulcerant, an antihistamine, a calcium preparation and a multivitamin & multimineral prescribed were 44.33%, 43.33%, 22.33%, 19.33% and 15.67% respectively. So, the findings from current study showed a trend towards inappropriate prescribing, particularly the over-prescribing of antibiotics and under-prescribing of generic drugs and also most of the drugs were prescribed out of national essential drug list. Hence, there would be needed for effective intervention program to encourage the physicians and healthcare providers in promoting more appropriate drug use. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/updcj.v2i2.15483 Update Dent. Coll. j: 2012; 2 (2): 13-17


Author(s):  
Velvizhy R. ◽  
Johan Pandian J.

Background: Fixed dose drug combinations (FDCs), are combinations of two or more active drugs. It should be used when the combination has an established advantage over single drug in efficacy, safety and compliance. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists only 19 of such combinations. But Indian market is filled with hundreds of FDCs which were not approved leading to irrational use. This study was focused on finding out the fixed dose combination of antimicrobial agents used in the post-operative general surgery ward of a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: After getting approval from institutional human ethics committee the prescriptions of patients admitted during April 2013 to March 2014 were analyzed. Demographic data, FDC prescribed by surgeons, Dose, Frequency, Duration, Route, Formulation, Brand or generic drugs, Adverse events due to use of FDC were collected and SPSS version 17 was used for statistical analysis. Fixed dose combinations were used in 90 Patients. The most commonly used FDC were ampicillin with Cloxacillin (43) followed by amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (22), cefoperazone with sulbactam (19) and piperacillin with tazobactam (6). A common drug used in combination along with FDC was metronidazole and aminoglycoside. The irrational combination seen in this study was ampicillin with Cloxacillin (8.88%) of the total FDC which is not approved by DCGI or FDA.Results: In this study out of 145 drugs used, 41drugs were administered three times a day, 90 drugs were given two times a day and 14 drugs were given once a day dosing. 53 patients received FDCs for prophylaxis and 37 patients for treatment purpose. All FDCs were prescribed in brand names. No adverse drug reaction was observed in this study.Conclusions: Consultants should undergo continuing medical education (CME) on newer drug combinations and their adverse drug reactions which will be evidence-based rather than to rely on representatives.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document