Evaluation of antibiotics prescribing pattern in government hospitals of Yemen Republic
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Date
2006
Authors
Ahmed Al-Shami, Abdulkareem Mohammed
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Abstract
Drug utilization study is important in establishing the status of drug use in a
particular country. Many studies have been carried out to document antibiotic use
patterns, and indicate that over prescribing, multiple drug prescribing, misuse of drugs,
use of unnecessary expensive drugs and overuse of antibiotics are the most common
problems of irrational drug use by prescribers.
The study was designed to focus mainly on the behaviour of the health care
provider regarding antibiotic prescribing practice at outpatient clinics in public hospitals
in Yemen.
The scope of the study was limited to four public hospitals-- public quaternary
health care facilities-- in Sana'a using the prospective drug utilization review method.
The study was designed using the methods described by the Management Sciences
for Health and WHO. Sampling of prescriptions was done prospectively on the days of
survey and between 10 AM to 1 PM, with the first 300 prescriptions in each hospital
(1200 prescriptions from all hospitals) i.e. convenient sampling.
Results showed that the total numbers of brand name antibiotics prescribed
were 76.8%. About 39.7% of the drugs and 27.5% of the antibiotics did not follow the
Yemen Essential Drug List. Of the total, 24.4% of the antibiotics had unwritten strength,
30.1% had unwritten dose, 8.3% had unwritten dosage form, 31.8% had unwritten
frequency and 67.9% had unwritten duration. Out of the total number of patients who
received antibiotics, 78.2% of them had received one antibiotic, while 21.8% had
received 2 or more antibiotics. It was found that 51.9% of prescriptions contained
antibiotics. These prescriptions with antibiotics were lack of important informationdiagnoses,
patient's name, gender, and age. The average number of drugs per
prescription was 2.6±1.3 (median = 3), the percentage of antibiotics from all drugs
prescribed was 23.8%, the percentage of branded drugs prescribed in all prescriptions
was 86.1 %, the average number of antibiotics per each patient received antibiotics was
1.2±0.4 (median = 1 ), the percentage of antibiotics prescribed as injections was 27 .8%,
and the percentage of vitamins/tonics prescribed for the patients received antibiotics
was 30.3%. The mean cost of prescription was US$8.60±7.50 (median = US$6.60)
while the mean cost of antibiotic per patient received antibiotic was US$6.80±7.10
(median = US$4.60) and the percentage of all antibiotics cost from the cost of all
prescriptions was 40.2%.
The pattern on prescribing showed that there were possibilities of various
potential drugs and antibiotics use problems in the government quaternary hospitals in
Yemen.
Description
Keywords
Antibiotics prescribing , Yemen Republic