Prevalence of medication use among low risk pregnant women: A drug utilization study

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize the profile of medication consumption by low risk pregnant women and to correlate it with sociodemographic characteristics of this population. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the Reference Center of Women's Health in the Brazilian municipality of Ribeirão Preto. This study included women which were at least in the 32nd week of the gestation period. Data related to sociodemographic characteristics of the pregnant women and to their pregnancy and medication consumption were collected from June, 2008 to November, 2008. A total of 699 pregnant women were included. About 20% of the pregnant women began prenatal care in the 12th week of gestation and 75.3% had at least six antenatal visits. The use of at least one drug during pregnancy was reported by 98% of the participants. The mean number of medications used was 4.35. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) risk classification, 14.07% of the medication belonged to C category, 1.85% to D and 0.03% to X, and 38.30% were not identified or not classified by the FDA. When correlating the number of prenatal visits with the amount of medication used, it was verified that pregnant women who underwent less than six visits during pregnancy used a higher number of medications. Pregnant women have been exposed to a variety of medications and there is a need to improve the quality of care in order to prevent potential risks to the fetus, especially in relation to the use of medications.

Drug utilization pattern among pregnant women attending maternal and child health clinic of tertiary hospital in eastern Ethiopia: Consideration of toxicological perspectives

“…This finding was in line with a study conducted in northern Ethiopia [8] where high number of drugs was used from this category. However, this finding had shown a gap from the study conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil [28] and Fiche hospital, Ethiopia [29] in which only 20.55% and 20.83%, respectively, were from category A. The study conducted in a tertiary care hospital, India indicated that 91.13% of drugs used during pregnancy were from this category and was found slightly higher than the present finding [30].…”

“…This was similar with the study conducted in Adama [1], northern Ethiopia [8] and Banglore [36]. Studies indicated that there was a practice of prescribing drugs from category X in Omani (0.3%) [9], in Brazil (0.03%) [28], in Jimma, Ethiopia (7.4%) [10], in Bahirdar, Ethiopia (5.5%) [12], and in United States (4.6%) [11]. …”

“…In the present study, there were 5 (1.33%) drugs from FDA-category D and all of them were used for chronic illnesses. These drugs were the least utilized from FDA pregnancy risk category drugs which was in line with that of the study conducted in Brazil (1.85%) [28] and in Coastal town, India (3.13%) [33] where medications used for pregnant women were from this category. A study conducted in Addis Ababa [34] had a higher value than this finding whereas a study conducted in Ahmedabad, India revealed that there was no drug used from this category [35].…”

Prescription drug use during pregnancy in Southern Tigray region, North Ethiopia

“…A similar trend of less drug prescription with increased number of visits to the health facilities was observed in the study conducted in Brazil [22]. This could be due to the fact that the more frequent the visiting the better is the counseling of the health providers for the pregnant women regarding the issues related to different aspects of pregnancy.…”

“…This might have helped the pregnant women to manage their health problem without actually consuming drugs. In contrast, other studies reported the utilization of more drugs by the pregnant woman with more frequent prenatal visits [22, 23]. …”