Abstract
Geriatric is potentially vulnerable to drug related problems. Inappropriate prescribing to these patient groups causes substantial morbidity and has become an important public health issue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prescription practice in geriatrics patients attending medical ward of Dessie Referral Hospital (DRH). A cross sectional study design was used to collect data from patient cards aged more than or equal to 65 years old that visited DRH in south wollo zone over the last one year period from September 11/09/2014 to September 10/09/2015. Assessment of the prescription pattern was done by using Beers criteria and WHO core indicators. A total of 244 charts were evaluated. 868 drugs were prescribed to the study population. Number of encounters with antibiotic prescription was 155 (63.5%). The percentage of encounters in which an injection was prescribed was 82.4%. Analysis of the prescribed medications using the 2012 Updated Beers Criteria showed 56 patients with at least one potentially inappropriate medication prescribed giving a prevalence of 23%. The study indicates the prescribing practices in the hospital associated with greater poly-pharmacy and inappropriate medication use. Key words: Elderly, Dessie referral hospital, beers criteria, WHO core indicators.
Highlights
Geriatric is a population whose age is 65 years and above
Prescribing error is defined as prescribing practice that deviates from the accepted standards and ordering drugs with greater risk of adverse drug reactions (ADR) (Sloane et al, 2002)
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate general medication utilization patterns using WHO core prescribing indicators (El Mahalli, 2012) and assess drug prescribing according to Beers criteria 2012 method (an explicit process measure for assessing potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) in older people) in geriatric patients (Campanelli, 2012), in a referral hospital
Summary
Geriatric is a population whose age is 65 years and above. Optimizing drug therapy is an essential part of caring for an older person. Poly-pharmacy is common in geriatrics patients due to the presence of comorbidities, increased occurrence of chronic diseases involving various systems and aging related complications. All these factors call for prescribing many medications to treat disorders and improve quality of life of geriatrics patients. On the other hand, increased used of multiple medications will contribute to the occurrence of drug related problems in this patient groups. Drug related complications in the geriatrics are becoming a major concern in aged care. The control of this problem needs understanding of the medication use practice, because assessing of this practice is the basic.
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