Pharmacoepidemiological studies of prescribing practices of health care providers of Pakistan: A cross-sectional survey (original) (raw)
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Prescription practices of public and private health care providers in Attock District of Pakistan
The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2002
The irrational use of drugs is a major problem of present day medical practice and its consequences include the development of resistance to antibiotics, ineffective treatment, adverse effects and an economic burden on the patient and society. A study from Attock District of Pakistan assessed this problem in the formal allopathic health sector and compared prescribing practices of health care providers in the public and private sector. WHO recommended drug use indicators were used to study prescription practices.
Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 2021
Objectives Irrational drug utilization is one of the key factors behind therapeutic failure, the emergence of antibiotic resistance, and a high incidence of adverse effects worldwide. This study was designed to assess drug use patterns, based on World Health Organization (WHO)/INRUD core drug use indicators and some additional parameters, in the secondary healthcare hospital of Islamabad, Pakistan. Methods The outpatient department (OPD) of the healthcare facility was randomly visited from December 2019 to March 2020 to prospectively collect data from the prescriptions and conduct patient interviews. A total of 2290 prescriptions were included in this study. The data analysis was done through SPSS software v23.0. Key findings The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 3.37. Polypharmacy was positively correlated with the age of the patients. Only 4.8% of the drugs were prescribed by generic name. There was frequent (41.5%) use of antibodies. However, the proportion of ...
Prescription and dispensing practices in public sector health facilities in Pakistan: survey report
PubMed, 2004
Objectives: To gather information on existing prescription practices, dispensing practices and patient satisfaction in government health services of the NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab province. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used for this purpose. Ten health care facilities were selected from each province keeping appropriate representation from first level health facilities, district health facilities and tertiary care hospital. Analysis of selected indicators was carried out on the basis of provinces, health facilities, gender and different age groups. Results: Documentation of 914 responses was completed from three provinces. Almost equal distribution of encounters was maintained representing different health facilities. Forty seven percent of encounters involved children under 15 years of age. Female patients comprised of 56% and the mean age of the entire sample was 26 years. The mean dispensing time was only 38 seconds, the mean consultation time was 1.79 minutes and the average number of drugs per prescription turned out to be 2.7 out of which only 1.6 drugs were being dispensed from the facility. More than half of the prescriptions contained antibiotics and 15% of patients were prescribed with injectables. Only half of the patients expressed satisfaction with their visit to health facility. Conclusions: Like many other developing countries, prescription and dispensing practices are not satisfactory in public sector health facilities of Pakistan. Appropriate and workable solutions need to be developed and implemented in the country to improve systems. Regular audits and qualitative studies should become part of the effort.
Evaluation of prescribing pattern at basic health care facilities of Islamabad Pakistan
International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2020
Failure to adopt the rational pattern of prescribing and dispensing by health professionals represents a signi icant risk to the safety of patient and lead to pharmaceuticals wastage. This study was designed to evaluate the prescribing and dispensing pattern at the selected basic healthcare facilities of Islamabad Pakistan. World Health Organization with collaboration to International Network for the Rational Use of Drugs has provided the core indicators to con igure and examine the prescribing patterns. The study was conducted in 2018, using these indicators following the study sites, fourteen Basic Health Units, three Rural Health Centres and three local dispensaries located in Islamabad (Pakistan) were randomly visited and that accounts overall 600 prescribing episodes collected retrospectively. The results of this study highlighted that the average number of drugs prescribed was 2.751. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic was 41.15%. Percentage of steroids, injections and antibiotics were 7.68%, 16.05% and 48.6%. The drugs prescribed from Essential Drug List were 75.08%. Average consultation time was 2.699 minutes. The average dispensing time was 1.479 minutes. We concluded that high number of average drugs per prescription, over prescription of antibiotics, low generic prescribing, less average consultation and dispensing time found in healthcare facilities.
Evaluation of drug prescribing practices in private and general hospitals in Makkah, Saudi Arabia
The study of prescribing pattern is a significant constituent of medical review, which helps in monitoring, evaluating and building required modifications in the prescribing practices to attain a rational and cost effective medical care. The present study determined the trends in drug prescription pattern of clinicians in private and general hospitals in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. One thousand two hundred and thirty two prescriptions were collected from private and general hospitals between March and September, 2013. The prescriptions were subjected to analysis using the World Health Organization (WHO) drug use indicators. The study cleared that all collected prescriptions were titled with the name of hospital and some were handwritten and the others were computer printouts. Readability was evident in 58.3% of handwritten prescriptions. The name, address, date, license number, and signature of the prescriber was presented in 71.8, 95.1, 71.8, 47.4 and 77.9% of all prescriptions, respectively. Name of patient, age, sex and address were presented in 81.5, 64.0, 61.0 and 20.5% in all prescriptions, respectively. The diagnosis of complaint or a history of allergy was presented in 44.5 and 12.7%, respectively of all prescriptions. The prescribed drugs in a generic name were 32.8% of all prescriptions. The strength, the drug dosage form, the route and frequency of administration of the prescribed drug were presented in 84.1, 58.1, 33.8 and 93.2% of all prescriptions, respectively whereas, duration of treatment was mentioned in only 12.0% of total prescriptions. The average number of drugs per encounter was 2.8. Prescribers were prescribed one, two, three, four, five or more than five drugs per prescription in 1.7, 41.1, 35.3, 16.2, 3.7 and 2.3%, respectively. This study revealed that it is necessary to further improve drugs prescribing practice. This calls for sustained interventional strategies and periodic review at all levels of healthcare for the avoidance of negative consequences of inappropriate prescription. Polypharmacy and low rate of generic prescriptions remain problems in healthcare facilities.
Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA, 2018
Appropriate use of medicines is important to provide quality health. The aim of this study was to assess the prescribing practices and prescription errors in the private clinic practices of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. A cross-sectional observational study was performed in March 2015 to assess the prescribing practices and prescription errors in the private clinical practices of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. We used the standard World Health Organization (WHO) methodology to achieve the study objectives. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect the prescriptions from five community pharmacies. A total of 300 prescriptions were collected. Among the prescribing indicators, the average number of drugs per encounter was 4.5, 23.3% of drugs were prescribed by generic name, 39.6% of encounters resulted in the prescription of antibiotics, in 19% of encounters injections were prescribed and 54.5% of the drugs prescribed were from the Essential Drugs List. A total of 1218 omissions, 510 commiss...
Drug use pattern in health care centers of District Bhakkar, Pakistan
Drug use pattern in health care centers of District Bhakkar, Pakistan, 2018
According to WHO, Drug utilization research is defined as 'the marketing, distribution, recommendation and utilize of drugs in a society, with particular focus on the resulting medical, social and economic results. In many developed countries, a number of studies about utilization of drug have been conducted, which indicates a wide proof of irrational drug use. The drug use indicators are considered as objective measures that can be extended to identify practices of medicines utilization in any health facility, country or an entire region. To check the drug utilize pattern in Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities of Bhakkar district Punjab Pakistan. Using WHO core drug use indicators, a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in health facilities of Bhakkar district. A total of 40 prescriptions were analyzed. The average age of patients visiting HC centers was 33.11 years (female 35.79; male 30.40). 3.65 was the average number of prescribed drugs. 27% was the percentage of encounters with at least one prescribed antibiotic whereas 35% was the percentage of encounters with at least one prescribed injection prescribed, which was low. 25% is the total percentage of drugs given using generic names was noticed. The average consultation and dispensing time of 40 prescriptions was 2.02 minutes and 42.52 seconds. The study demonstrates that trend toward irrational practice mainly on use of antibiotics and non-generic prescribing in most of health facilities studied. Patient care given by health facilities studied was inadequate and thus for encouragement of rational drug use practice, an effective intervention program is recommended.
Review of the Basic Components of Clinical Pharmaceutical Care in Pakistan
Canadian Journal of Applied Sciences, 2011
The current clinical and pharmaceutical systems in developing countries potentially need special attention of international health care organizations. The undermined health care facilities are hurting the overall quality of life and international health standards.
Khyber Medical University Journal, 2017
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVES: To assess and evaluate prescription pattern and prescription errors using World Health Organization (WHO) drug use indicators in the medical ward of Leady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan.METHODS: This retrospective study of 200 in-patient’s prescriptions was conducted to investigate the WHO drug use indicators (average number of drugs prescribed per prescription, percentage of prescriptions encounter with an injection(s) prescribed, percentage of prescriptions encounter with an antibiotic(s) prescribed, percentage of drugs prescribed with generic names, percentage of drugs prescribed from the WHO’s Essential Drug List (EDL), drugs prescribed from the National Essential Drug List (NEDL) and prescriptions errors.RESULTS: Drugs prescribed for 200 admitted patients were 1410 and average number of drugs prescribed per prescription were 7.05 (n=1410). Prescriptions with an injection(s) prescribed were 704/1410 (49.9%), prescriptions with an antibiotic(s) prescribe...