Study of Drug Prescribing Pattern in Pediatric Outpatient Department at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Infants and children suffer from frequent but usually non serious illnesses and are more vulnerable to various adverse events related to drugs and poor understanding of instructions on prescription by the patient or caretakers were likely to cause medication error. The correct identification of an illness and its management with medications is a vital aspect of patient care, especially for paediatric population. So, prescribing pattern studies are very helpful in promoting the appropriate use of drugs in population. Objectives: It aims to obtain data on the current prescribing pattern in pediatric OPD at a tertiary care teaching hospital with ultimate goal to promote appropriate use of drugs. Methods: This study was conducted in 62 pediatric patients of either sex visiting Pediatric out-patient department over a period of three months at NMCH and RC, Raichur, Karnataka. Results: Prescription analysis showed that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.32. Drugs were mostly prescribed by brand name (98.06%), Injections (4.83%) were least prescribed, drugs prescribed from Essential Drug List was 48.54%. Antibiotics were most prescribed class of drugs (33.9%). Conclusion: The study concludes that polypharmacy was slightly seen in prescriptions. Diagnosis of the patient was recorded for most of the prescriptions. There is need to conduct many such studies at regular interval as it is useful for auditing large number of prescriptions to find out early signals of the irrational drug use. Our study evaluated drug use pattern only from the outpatients hence prescription pattern may vary among inpatients.

Keywords: Prescribing pattern, Infants, WHO core prescribing indicators, Polypharmacy, Generic name