Assessment of WHO Core Drug Use Indicators in a Government Teaching Hospital of Assam: Evidence from Prescription Audit Data.

BACKGROUND

With the rise of irrational drug prescriptions, leading to polypharmacy, increased health care costs, drug interactions, and risks of adverse drug reactions, irrational antibiotic prescribing, overuse of injections, and hospitalization, it has become important to monitor drug use patterns.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

With the objective to assess the drug use indicators of a government teaching hospital of Assam using WHO Core Drug Use Indicators, 700 prescriptions from OPDs of various specialties were assessed prospectively from the hospital dispensary and details of core drug use indicators were noted and analyzed for each in a proforma as per WHO recommendation on investigating drug use in health care facilities. Descriptive statistics were used thereafter to express the results.

RESULTS

The WHO core prescribing indicators analysis revealed that the average number of drugs per encounter was 3.6. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 37%, with only 6% being injectable drugs; however, 39.14% of prescriptions included one or more antibiotics. Only 37% of the drugs prescribed were from the NLEM.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights that only prescriptions involving injectable drugs were in accordance with WHO recommendations, while the other parameters exceeded the WHO-recommended values.