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Abstract

Background: Diabetes is becoming major public health problem in low-and middle-income countries. India shares the highest burden of diabetic cases in the world. Diabetes over a period leads to various organ system complication, thereby increasing treatment cost. Hence it's prudent to have rational drug utilization pattern in diabetes cases especially in rural areas. This study aims to assess the same. Material and Methods: Prospective, observational Pharmaco-epidemiological study was carried out in Medicine outpatient department for a period of two months and 200 Antihyperglycemic agents (AHA) containing prescriptions pattern were studied. Drug Utilization (DU) 90% was used to assess rationality of prescription and was calculated based on defined daily dose (DDD) with their respective value in Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification code. Defined daily dose is calculated as DDD/1000/day. Results: Monotherapy forms (69.42%) of AHA were more preferred than combination form (30.58%). Metformin was the commonest AHA prescribed. Glimepiride+Metformin+Voglibose is the commonest Fixed dose combination of AHA prescribed. Cost of AHA per prescription was 170.20rs. 50% of prescribed AHA constituted to DU90% segment. Conclusion: Newer class of AHA were least preferred. More generic drug prescription needed to bring down cost of AHA per prescription. Prescription was largely rational as not more than 50% of prescribed AHA constituted to DU90%.