Assessment of the pattern of drug prescribing in pediatrics ward in tertiary setting hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Drugs have to be safe, effective and be used nationally and may require a special concern due to their unwanted side effects. Safely and effective use of drugs depend on prescribing pattern. The aim of the study was to assess the drug prescribing practice in pediatrics ward of St. Paul Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A retrospective study had been conducted from January 20 to February 15, 2009. Structured data collection formats were used to obtain data from patient records using stratified and random sampling techniques. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 16.0. Sums of 384 patient cards were included to the study in which 468 drugs were prescribed. Cotrimoxazole (18.87%), amoxicillin (14.50%), and paracetamol (10.4%) were the most commonly prescribed medications. Average number of drugs per encounter was 1.22. About 71.35%, 59.4%, 45.73% and 15.17% of drugs were prescribed with correct indication, frequency, dosage and duration respectively. There has been an inappropriate use of drugs in the hospital. Many drugs were prescribed without information regarding dosage, frequency and duration of treatment. Pharmacy professionals and physicians should check the completeness of patient cards and prescriptions to promote rational use of medications.

Trends of Pediatric Outpatients Prescribing in Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates

“…This is important particularly in paediatric population and when one consider the high % of encounters (44.6%) with antibiotics. Such use of antibiotics is similar to 43.19% in India [36], much higher than (21%) reported for Omani pediatric population [37] and less than (53.42%) reported in Ethiopia [21]. It is a fact that antibiotics are routinely used for the treatment of pediatric illnesses and still irrationally used for inappropriate indications such as upper respiratory tract infections, acute otitis media and acute gastroenteritis.…”

“…In the present study, the average number of drugs per encounter was 2.6. This is higher than the recommended figure of 2, however, it is similar to 2.5 in India [2], more than that in Ethiopia [21] but less than that in KSA [22]. Prescribing large number of drugs to a child increases the risk of adverse effects, drug interactions, dispensing errors and leads to less understanding of parents of dosages regimens [23] [26].…”

“…Studies that investigated the prescribing trends in adults [5]- [20] are far in excess of those in pediatric patients [21]- [28]. It has been pointed out that drugs marketed for adult use, may possibly, be used in an off-label manner in children [2].…”

Assessment of medicines use pattern using World Health Organization’s Prescribing, Patient Care and Health facility indicators in selected health facilities in eastern Ethiopia

“…In other studies, all dispensed medicines were improperly labeled in Cambodia [ 31 ] and only1.4 % of prescriptions was adequately labeled in Nepal [ 3 ]. The study also showed that, 69.0 % of patients were able to repeat the correct dosage schedule of the medicine they had received which was relatively lower when compared to the other studies conducted in south west Ethiopia which were 79 and 72.80 % [ 19 , 22 ], but higher than a study conducted in Cambodia [ 30 ].…”

Drug use in children hospitalized with cardio-rheumatologic diseases in Andijan, Uzbekistan: a cross-sectional descriptive study

“…Enough studies were performed to investigate the prescribing trends in adults [ 10 , 11 ], whereas pediatricians lack such detailed information on most of the drugs [ 12 , 13 ]. Therefore, children are very vulnerable to possible harmful drug effects, and there are not enough studies on drug use in children [ 2 ].…”