Drug prescription behavior in a Teaching Hospital of Western Maharashtra

Abstract

Context: To identify drug prescription behavior and thus, guide further actions to recommend evidence-based module for learning in postgraduate curriculum. Aims: To determine drug prescribing behavior of postgraduate residents. Settings and Design: Retrospective historical data-based cross-sectional study in a tertiary care, multispecialty teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: Calculation of sample size and sampling procedure was based on standard recommendations of the World Health Organization for investigation of "drug use in health facilities." A sample size of 1200 was selected from a sampling frame of 86,213 prescriptions using systematic random sampling. Statistical Analysis Used: The data were entered in MS Excel and analyzed for determining core drug use prescription indicators, namely, average number of drugs per encounter, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, percentage of encounters with an antibiotic prescribed, percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed. Additional indicators suggestive of drug prescribing behavior such as polypharmacy, type of drug prescribed, department wise distribution, percentage of prescription forms with patient identification details, and demographic characteristics of outpatient department attendees were also calculated. Results: A total of 4096 drugs were prescribed in 1200 prescriptions. Thus, an average of 3.41 (±2.07) drugs per encounter was prescribed. Generic name was used for prescribing 2008 (49.02%) drugs. Antibiotics and injectable were prescribed in 222 (18.5%) and 48 (4%) prescriptions, respectively. Polypharmacy was seen in 286 (23.8%) of prescriptions. Conclusions: Such detailed studies can contribute vital inputs for the development of evidence-based training modules for rational drug use even at the institutional level. Availability and accessibility of essential drugs at affordable prices can be achieved with rationale use of drugs.

Keywords

• Drug use
• health facility
• outpatient department
• prescription