ISSN 2736-1594
International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology ISSN 2326-7234 Vol. 4 (6), pp. 151-157, September, 2016. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
An assessment of the drug prescribing pattern in Jazan general hospital, KSA
Al-Sabah Azziman1, Hamdan Habib1 and Abdulaziz Omar2
1College of Pharmacy, Jazan University, Gizan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 2Department of Pharmacy, Jazan General Hospital, Gizan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Received 12 March, 2014; Revised 02 April, 2015; Accepted 18 January, 2016 and Published 12 September, 2016
Abstract
Inappropriate drug prescribing is a global problem affecting the healthcare system. This study was performed to assess the drug prescribing pattern in geriatric, paediatric and obstetrics and gynaecology department. Patient's chances of exposure to poly pharmacy are more, therefore, this study was carried out to find out the rational use of prescribed drugs in Jazan general hospital. A prospective cross sectional (descriptive) study was carried out and a total of 3070 prescriptions were collected for the study during November, 2012 to October, 2013. 1034, 1024, and 1012 prescriptions from geriatric, pediatric and obstetrics and gynaecology department respectively were collected. The average numbers of drugs used per patient were 3.1, 7.4 and 3.3 for geriatric, pediatric and obstetrics and gynaecology department patients respectively. Prescription pattern of the drugs for pediatric patients consists of antibiotics, analgesics and antipyretics mainly. For geriatric patients among systemic route, commonly prescribed therapeutic class of medications were antibacterials (70.5%), and among oral route, pantoprazole was the most commonly prescribed medication (61.2%) . For obstetrics and gynaecology department patients the most frequently prescribed drugs were oral iron, folic acid preparations, antibiotics and analgesics. There is a high level of exposure to medication in paediatric and geriatric population. In obstetrics and gynaecology department, the average numbers of drugs per prescription were slightly higher compared to the standard set by World Health Organisation (WHO) but majority of the drugs were prescribed as per United State Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) category A (the safest category during pregnancy).
Key words: Drug prescription pattern, Jazan General Hospital.