Objectives: To determine (i) the prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in our Centre and, (ii) appraise pharmacists' intervention and correction of identified prescription errors. Design: A descriptive, single blinded cross-sectional study. Setting: Kidney Care Centre is a public Specialist hospital. The monthly patient load averages 60 General Outpatient cases and 17.4 in-patients. Participants: A total of 31 medical doctors (comprising of 2 Consultant Nephrologists, 15 Medical Officers, 14 House Officers), 40 nurses and 24 ward assistants participated in the study. One pharmacist runs the daily call schedule. Prescribers were blinded to the study. Prescriptions containing only galenicals were excluded. Interventions: An error detection mechanism was set up to identify and correct prescription errors. Life-threatening prescriptions were discussed with the Quality Assurance Team of the Centre who conveyed such errors to the prescriber without revealing the ongoing study. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of prescription errors, pattern of prescription errors, pharmacist's intervention. Results: A total of 2,660 (75.0%) combined prescription errors were found to have one form of error or the other; illegitimacy 1,388 (52.18%), omission 1,221(45.90%), wrong dose 51(1.92%) and no error of style was detected. Life-threatening errors were low (1.1-2.2%). Errors were found more commonly among junior doctors and nonmedical doctors. Only 56 (1.6%) of the errors were detected and corrected during the process of dispensing. Conclusion: Prescription errors related to illegitimacy and omissions were highly prevalent. There is a need to improve on patient-to-healthcare giver ratio. A medication quality assurance unit is needed in our hospitals.
Background Clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors is rapidly becoming prevalent among children and adolescents with grave implications for their cardiovascular health. We set out to determine prevalence and pattern of clustering of risk factors and, identify factors (if any) that determine their clustering. Methods A cross-sectional study of children (3–9 years) and adolescents (10–17 years) in a rural, agrarian community. Their blood pressure, body mass index and lipids were measured. Data was analyzed with SPSS 20. Results A total of 114 (M : F, 1 : 1.1) subjects were studied. The mean age of children and adolescents were 5.6 ± 2.1 and 12.9 ± 2.2 years respectively. The most prevalent cardiometabolic risk factors were elevated non-high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c; 39.5%), low HDL-c (33.3%), prehypertension (12.3%) and overweight (9.6%). The prevalence of hypertension was higher among females (11.9% vs. 1.8%, p = 0.024) and adolescents (13.2% vs. 1.6%, p = 0.037). Serum levels of non-HDL-c was higher among adolescents than children (50.9% vs. 29.5%, p = 0.013). At least one risk factor was present in 68.4% of the subjects. Clustering of two and three risk factors were present in 18.4% and 6.1%. The presence of prehypertension (χ2 23.93, p < .001), hypertension (χ2 12.19, p = 0.002), high serum non-HDL-c (χ2 6.336, p = 0.011) and high serum total cholesterol (TC; χ2 8.810, p < 0.001) were associated with clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors. Conclusion The burden of cardiometabolic risk factors among children and adolescents is high. Identified determinants of risk factor clustering were prehypertension, hypertension, non-HDL-c and TC.
Pre-hypertension and known risk factors of CKD are prevalent in the people of Ondo State, Nigeria. Individuals with persistent pre-hypertension should be routinely screened for CKD and referred to the Nephrologist for early intervention.
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