Prescribing practices at a secondary healthcare setting of Islamabad, Pakistan: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Irrational drug utilization is one of the key factors behind therapeutic failure, the emergence of antibiotic resistance, and a high incidence of adverse effects worldwide. This study was designed to assess drug use patterns, based on World Health Organization (WHO)/INRUD core drug use indicators and some additional parameters, in the secondary healthcare hospital of Islamabad, Pakistan. Methods The outpatient department (OPD) of the healthcare facility was randomly visited from December 2019 to March 2020 to prospectively collect data from the prescriptions and conduct patient interviews. A total of 2290 prescriptions were included in this study. The data analysis was done through SPSS software v23.0. Key findings The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 3.37. Polypharmacy was positively correlated with the age of the patients. Only 4.8% of the drugs were prescribed by generic name. There was frequent (41.5%) use of antibodies. However, the proportion of injectable drugs (12.3%) was within the optimum limit. Essential components of a prescription notably diagnosis, dosage form, method of administration, and duration of therapy were frequently missing. 87% of the prescribed drugs were from the National Essential Medicines List. 80% of the total prescribed drugs were available in the hospital pharmacy. Only 30% of the patients had correct dosage information, while only 20% of the drugs were correctly labelled. Conclusion This study suggests frequent non-compliant prescribing practices including polypharmacy, use of a brand name, antibiotics overuse, compromised legibility and completeness of prescription and inadequate patient counselling and drug labelling, in the secondary healthcare hospital of Islamabad, Pakistan.