ObjectiveThis study is aimed to investigate drug utilization pattern among pregnant women attending maternal and child health clinic of tertiary hospital in eastern Ethiopia from March 1 to April 20, 2018.ResultA total of 369 pregnant women medical records were reviewed. The mean age of pregnant women was 24.34 (± 4.48) years and the majority of them were within the age of 18-25 years. About three-fourths (n = 277, 75.1%) of them were urban residents. Besides, 314 (85.1%) women had taken at least one drug with a total of 377 drugs prescribed. From which, supplemental drugs accounted majority of the drug therapy (84.88%) whereas non-supplemental drugs (15.12%) were used by 41 pregnant women during the review period. According to Food and Drug Administration FDA pregnancy risk classification, 320 (84.88%) drugs were prescribed from category A; 33 (8.75%) drugs were from category B; 19 (5.04%) drugs were from category C and 5 (1.33%) drugs were from category D. There was no drug prescribed from category X. As this result indicated, there is a decrease in the prevalence of drug use from Category A to X as the possibility of potential risk to fetus might outweigh the potential benefit to the mother. Some drugs were utilized from category D for treatment of chronic illnesses.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3966-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.