BackgroundRational prescribing is a primary step to ensure rational drug use. Often, half of the medicines are prescribed irrationally and half of these are even used incorrectly as the patients fail to take their medicines appropriately. The aim of this research was to evaluate drug-prescribing patterns of four hospitals in southern Ethiopia.MethodsA retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between May 15 and June 25, 2014, to evaluate the drug-prescribing patterns based on the World health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators. The prescription papers, kept for the last 1 year in the outpatient departments of the four hospitals, were analyzed according to WHO guidelines. Also, prescriptions in the hospitals were analyzed to determine the most frequently prescribed drugs. All the statistical calculations were performed using SPSS® version 20.0 software.Results and discussionThe average number of drugs per prescription ranges from 1.82±0.90 to 2.28±0.90, whereas the percentage of use of antibiotics and injections ranged from 46.7 to 85 and 15 to 61.7, respectively. The average percentages of drugs prescribed by generic name and from the essential drugs list were 95.8 and 94.1, respectively. Anti-infective and analgesic drugs are found to be the most frequently prescribed medicines. In terms of polypharmacy, there was a slight deviation in prescribing patterns from what is acceptable according to the WHO criteria. Prescribing by generic name and from essential drug list was almost optimal. There was a significant deviation in the use of injectables in two of the four hospitals (50%), whereas their use in the other two hospitals was within the acceptable range. The use of antibiotics in all the hospitals in present study was higher than the acceptable range.ConclusionGenerally, it seems that there is need for improvement of the prescribing patterns in the hospitals, although this should be consolidated with further studies to link the patient diagnosis and the prescribed medications.

BackgroundPatient-centered care is now the goal for virtually all healthcare systems. The aim of this research was to evaluate the patient care quality in regard to drug dispensing in four hospitals in southern Ethiopia namely Wolaita Sodo University teaching and referral hospital (WSUTRH), Tercha zonal hospital (TZH), Sodo Christian hospital (SCH) and Dubo St. Mary’s Catholic primary hospital (DSMCPH).MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted by using the WHO patient care and facility indicators between September 10 and October 20, 2014. Patients who visited the outpatient departments of the four hospitals were selected by systematic random sampling method and interviewed. In total 384 patients were selected based on a rough estimate of proportion of patients visiting to the four hospitals. Facility indicators including the availability of essential drugs list (EDL), national drug formulary, standard treatment guideline (STG) and key drugs were evaluated. Descriptive statistical calculations were performed using SPSS® version 20.0 software.ResultThe mean number of drugs was in the range between 1.9 ± 0.9 to 2.2 ± 2.0. The mean consultation time range was found to be 4.2 ± 1.6 to 4.9 ± 5.0 min whereas the mean dispensing time was ranged from 96.1 ± 52.0 to 152.3 ± 47.6 s. The overall mean number of drug prescribed for the four hospitals was 2.0 ± 1.2 and the mean percentage of medications actually dispensed in the hospitals was thus calculated to be 86.3. The mean percentage of medications clearly labeled was 45.4. Patients who knew their dosage forms accurately were 78.8. Among the four hospitals evaluated only one hospital (25 %) had at least a copy of the Ethiopian essential drug list (EDL), standard treatment guideline for hospitals and drug formulary. The mean availability of key drugs in the hospitals was found to be 65.7 %.ConclusionThe result of the present study indicates that the patient consulting time, medications labeling and availability of key drugs in the hospitals are inadequate. The medication labeling practice in the four hospitals is unacceptably low. These patient care indicators need a special attention for improvement.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1882-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Presence of gestational diabetes mellitus during pregnancy has serious complications for both mother and child. Its burden is increasing in low and middle-income countries but, little is known about its contribution in Ethiopia. Aims and Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus and to identify associated factors in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Materials and Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was carried out from August 2017 to October 2017 in Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia. A total of 518 pregnant women were participated from 2 hospitals and 4 health centers. Capillary blood samples were collected at fasting and 2 hours after 75gm glucose load to measure blood sugar and diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus was made by using 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Binary logistic regression model was applied to assess risk factors of gestational diabetes mellitus. Results: Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus was 4.2% (95% CI, 2.5, 6.2) with mean post glucose load level of 160.1 mg/dl (6.3) and 15(4%) among urban residents and 7(4.9%) among rural residents. The proportion of gestational diabetes mellitus increases with increase in number of pregnancies. Previous history of spontaneous abortion (AOR: 3.5; 95%CI: 1.7-14.6), family history of type II diabetes (AOR: 4.3; 95%CI: 1.3-8.7) and previous caesarean section (AOR: 7.5; 95%CI: 1.3-14.4) were found to be significantly associated with gestational diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus is higher as compared to other studies conducted in the country. Strengthening screening, care and prevention strategies for gestational diabetes mellitus are important to improve maternal and child health.

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