Prescription practice in patients of upper respiratory tract infection at a pediatric outpatient clinic in Punjab

Abstract

Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the most common and frequently occurring infections in the paediatric population. Often, it has a viral origin and requires only symptomatic treatment. Very few patients require antibiotics. The prescriptions of children, diagnosed with URTI, over one year period of time, were studied to assess the utilization of drugs. Of 2981 patients, only 1078 patients were diagnosed to have URTI. This consisted of 598 male & 480 female patients. It was found that URTI was most common in the age group of 12-60 months (51%) followed by 1day-12 months (20%). URTI was found to be affect the patients mostly in winter (35%) followed by autumn (25%). Cough and cold combinations were the most commonly prescribed medicines in URTI (27% of total drugs prescribed) followed by antipyretics (21%), herbal cough and cold medicine (18%), saline nasal drops (15%), bronchodilators (8%), antihistamine (6%) and antibiotics (5%). It was found that 12% of the patients were prescribed an antibiotic. Amongst antibiotics, azithromycin was the most commonly prescribed followed by amoxicillin+clavulanic acid combination (61% and 31%). In this study, children less than 5 years of age were the ones diagnosed with URTI and this was highest during the winter season. Azithromycin was most commonly prescribed antibiotic. The antibiotic usage pattern reflects judicious choice of the prescriber.

Prescribing trends in respiratory tract infections in a tertiary care teaching hospital

“…6 In present study 52.61% oral, 30.62% injectable and 16.75% inhalational drugs were prescribed, while in another study 86% drugs were prescribed by oral and 14% by nasal route. 9 Number of drugs per prescription was 8.32 which is in contrast to the study by Gogoi S et al where average number of drugs per prescription was 6.92. 7 In the present study 49.47% drugs from national essential list of medicines 2015 were prescribed, while in previous study 66.7% drugs were prescribed from NLEM.…”

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“…These results were in agreement with the previous studies where acute respiratory infection such as pneumonia, pharyingitis and fever were important reason for hospitalization and prescription of antibiotics 19,20,21,22 . Our results were in accordance with Tiwari et al, who showed that 80% 23 25 respectively. However, in a study carried out in 50 primary health care centers (PHCCs) across 5 governorates of Kuwait, the mean number of drugs prescribed per prescription was 2.9 26 and in 4 PHCCs of Bahrain, the average number of drugs per encounter was 2.6 6 .…”

Assessment of Prescribing Trend of Drugs at Out Patient’s Chest Ward of Government Tertiary Care Hospital Situated in Karachi

“…In present study the most common diseases were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Bronchial asthma, Pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), which is similar to the previous studies [20][21][22].…”