A comparative study to assess prescription pattern, cost, and appropriateness of antimicrobial usage in a rural government tertiary care hospital and rural private practitioners

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is defined as the ability of microorganism (bacteria, fungus, virus, or parasite) to resist the effects of a drug to inhibit microorganism growth, which is becoming a major concern worldwide particularly in developing country like India. Aim and Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify, compare, and assess the appropriateness of antimicrobials prescribed in a rural tertiary care hospital and those prescribed by rural private practitioners and to assess the average cost of antimicrobials per prescription. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which a total of 2003 prescriptions were analyzed from outpatient department (OPD) of rural tertiary and prescriptions from nearby chemist shops for prescription pattern, cost, and appropriateness. Results: It was identified that most of the antimicrobial containing prescriptions in both private and public health sector were prescribed by MBBS doctors (56.33%). In Government Medical College (GMC) OPDs, antimicrobials were prescribed mostly for gastrointestinal infection (25.75%) and beta lactams (45.23%) followed by fluoroquinolones (27.10%) were the most commonly prescribed. While among rural private practitioners, gastrointestinal infections (33.50%) followed by fever (27.70%) were the most common clinical conditions, for which antimicrobials were prescribed and 13.40% prescriptions contained more than one antimicrobial. About 43.37% of antimicrobials prescribed in OPDs of GMC and 56.20% antimicrobials prescribed by private practitioners were found to be inappropriate which was statistically significant. Conclusion: The study concluded that around half of the prescriptions analyzed were inappropriate and so there is a strict need of supervising the antimicrobials prescribing patterns, consumption, and it’s dispensing from the pharmacy shops.