<p>Assessment of Drug Use Pattern Using WHO Core Prescribing Indicators at Outpatient Settings of Governmental Hospitals in Dessie Town</p>

Abstract

Background: Enhancing the standards of medical treatment at all levels of the healthcare delivery system can improve the quality of life in developing countries. One method to promote rational drug use is an assessment of drug use pattern based on drug use indicators. Objective: To evaluate prescription patterns at the outpatient pharmacy of Dessie Referral Hospital and Boru Meda Hospital at Dessie town. Methods: An institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prescribing patterns in governmental hospitals of Dessie town from April 1 to May 30, 2019. Six hundred eligible prescriptions were selected from each hospital through a systematic random sampling technique. Results: The result of this study showed that both hospitals used standard prescriptions (100%). Age (99.0%) and name (94.7%) of patients were the most commonly recorded patient information while weight, address of patients and diagnosis were recorded only in 1.1%, 39.2% and 61.3% of the studied prescription papers, respectively. A total 2409 drugs were prescribed in the 1200 prescription papers and the percentage of encounters with injection(s) and antibacterial(s) was 9.0% and 42.6%, respectively. At each hospital, all drugs were prescribed from the Ethiopian essential drug list. Conclusion: The present study revealed the use of standard presecription papers at both hospitals. None of the patient-related information was completely written in all prescrptions. For drug-related information, only the name of the drug was written in all prescription papers. There is also a significant deviation from the acceptable WHO standard for prescribing antibiotics.

Prescribing pattern and associated factors in community pharmacies: A cross-sectional study using AWaRe classification and WHO antibiotic prescribing indicators at Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

“…In order to identify patients during the dispensing process, prescribers should be aware of the signi cance of writing the patient's name on each and every prescription paper. The percentage of prescription papers with age written in the current study was 92.55%, which is consistent with a study conducted in Bahir Dar and Dessie, Ethiopia, where 92.6% and 93.5% were reported 40,43 .…”

“…The result, however, is lower than that of the study conducted in Harar (32.7%) and higher than those from Bahir Dar (8.3%) and Jimma (11.45%) in Ethiopia 41,45,46 . The method of drug administration was noted on 84.62% of prescription papers in the current study, which is roughly equivalent to earlier ndings from Harar, 81.8% 45 and Dessie, 82.2% 43 in Ethiopia. but less than previous studies of a comparable studies that reported between 88.1 and 93.1% 42,44,46 .…”

“…Particularly for the pediatric population, age is a signi cant factor in dosage estimates and the choice of suitable dosage forms. In terms of the sex of the patients, 89.92% of prescription papers in the current study included sex; this result was greater than that of similar studies 39,40,45,48 , but lower than that of similar studies [42][43][44]48 . If prescribers fail to include diagnoses on prescription documents, pharmacy staff will be unable to analyze prescription orders.…”

“…It is expected that all prescription papers should bear all these components for rational dispensing, but these variables were not mentioned in a complete way in the study of the prescription papers. The percentage of prescription papers on which the date was written was 81.25%; when compared to studies done in Ethiopia and other parts of the world, this was relatively higher than some ndings [39][40][41] , which were 73.99% to 77.25%, lower than ndings from some previous similar studies [42][43][44] , which were 83.1% to 93.5%, and comparable to the study done by Gashaw et al 45 , which was 81.3%.…”

“…For the 1200 patients that visited the community pharmacy in Dire Dawa as part of the current study, a total of 2354 medications were prescribed, resulting in an average of 1.96 prescriptions prescribed each encounter, which is somewhat higher than the WHO standard (1.6-1.8) 2 as well as results from comparable investigations carried out across Ethiopia, which revealed an average of 1.64 to 1.90 medications per encounter 1,31,[39][40][41][42]50,51 . However, compared to several other study results from Ethiopia, Sudan, India, and Saudi Arabia, which found an average value of 2.02-4.2 medicines per encounter, this number is lower 26,27,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62]43,45,47,48,[52][53][54][55] . Prescribers should restrict medicine prescriptions to only those that are absolutely essential because polypharmacy can expose patients to unfavorable drug effects and raise patient costs.…”