EVALUATION OF DRUGS UTILIZATION PATTERN USING WHO PRESCRIBING INDICATORS IN AYDER REFERRAL HOSPITAL, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, irrational uses of drugs, particularly prescription errors are adversely affecting global health and pose problems. Bad prescribing habits lead to ineffective and unsafe treatment, exacerbation or prolongation of illness, distress and harm to the patients and incurring unnecessary costs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilization pattern of drugs using WHO prescribing indicators at Ayder Referral Hospital, Northern Ethiopia Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was carried out by sampling 384 prescriptions from all prescriptions of the outpatient pharmacy department of the Ayder Referral Hospital from January to April, 2014. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select prescriptions during data collection. Data processing and analyzing was done using statistical package for social sciences version 20. Results: A total of 1003 drugs were prescribed from 384 prescriptions and the average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 2.61% ; percentage of encounters with at least an antibiotic prescribed was 321 (32%). Injections were prescribed in 237 (23.6%) of encounters. All of the drugs prescribed were from the essential drug lists of Ethiopia and 936 (93.3%) of drugs were prescribed by generic name. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that drug utilization pattern were not optimal in accordance with the standard values of WHO prescribing indicators. There was a higher tendency of polypharmacy and over prescription of antibiotics.