Prescribing pattern in a pediatric out-patient department in Gujarat
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3329/bjp.v4i1.1062Keywords:
Pediatrics, Prescription, GujaratAbstract
This study was carried out to find the medicine-prescribing pattern in children taking treatment in pediatric out-patient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural Gujarat. Prescriptions of 606 patients were collected over a period of six months and analyzed for (i) average number of medicines per prescription, (ii) percentage of medicines prescribed by official names, (iii) essentiality status of medicines, (iv) appropriateness of medicines used and (v) cost of prescription. The average number of medicines per prescription was 3.72 ± 0.07 and 46.7% patients were prescribed up to 3 medicines. Of the 1483 medicines prescribed, 456 (30.7%) were prescribed by official names and 77.61% were essential. Only 20.13% prescriptions could be reckoned as most appropriate. Twenty percent of the total cost was on account of non-essential medicines, of which 95% was contributed by non-essential fixed dose drug combinations.
Downloads
130
134 Read
12
References
Ansari KU, Singh S, Pandey RC. Evaluation of prescribing pattern of doctors for rational drug therapy. Indian J Pharmacol. 1998; 30 : 43-46.
Biswas NR, Biswas RS, Pal PS. Patterns of prescriptions and drug use in two tertiary hospitals in Delhi. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2000; 44: 109-12.
Desai S. Essential drugs and rational drug therapy. Bull Soc Rational Ther. 2001; 12: 2-7.
Gajjar BM, Desai S, Srivastava S. Evaluation and comparison of prescribing pattern of physicians from The Institute and The Private sectors for rational drug therapy. (Dissertation). Vallabh Vidyanagar, S. P University, 1999.
Ghai OP, Paul VK. Rational drug therapy in pediatric practice. Indian Pediatr. 1988; 25: 1095-1109.
Kasturi N, Singh S, Ansari KU. An audit of prescriptions for rational use of fixed-dose drug combinations. Indian J Pharmacol. 1999; 31: 367-69.
Prakash O, Mathur GP, Singh YD, Kushwalia KP. Prescription audit of under six children living in periurban areas. Indian Pediatr. 1989; 26: 900-04.
Sanz EJ, Boada JN. Drug utilization by children in Tenerif Island, Spain. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 1988; 34: 495-99.
Shewade DG, Pradhan SC. Auditing of prescriptions in a government teaching hospital and four retail medical stores in Pondicherry. Indian J Pharmacol. 1998; 30: 408-10.
Srivastava SK, Desai SV. Cost variation of some commonly used antimicrobial agents. J Indian Med Assoc. 1997; 95: 439-40.
Straand J, Rokstad K, Heggedal U. Drug prescribing for children in general practice: A report from the More and Romsdal prescription study. Acta Pediatrica. 1998, 87: 218-24.
Uppal R, Chhabra A, Narang A. Pattern of drug use in neonatal intensive care unit. Indian Pediatr. 1984; 35: 647-49.
WHO Model list of essential medicines. 14th ed. 2005.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).