Assessment of drug prescribing pattern using WHO indicators in hospitalized patients at a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural area of India

Background: To promote rational drug use in patients of rural areas, it is important to assess drug use pattern using the WHO prescription indicators. The aim of this study was to assess the drug prescription patterns in patients admitted in Medicine department of UPRIMS&R.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted from Jan 2015 to June 2015. Data were collected & analysed according to WHO prescribing indicators and presented by using descriptive statistics.Results: 626 prescriptions were selected in which 3205 drugs were prescribed. The most common drug groups prescribed were antibiotics 24.64% followed by anti-diabetic drugs 12.38%, analgesics 12.23% and drugs for cardiovascular diseases 11.82%, GIT drugs 9.01%. Average number of drugs per prescription was 5.11. Drugs prescribed from essential drugs list (India) was 76.06%. Drugs prescribed from essential drugs list (WHO) was 23.04%. Total number of prescriptions with antibiotics was 24.27%. Total number of prescriptions with injections was 24.05%. Percentage of fixed dose combinations was 28.7%. Drugs prescribed by generic name were 89.88%.Conclusions: The prescribing pattern of antibiotics was according to WHO recommendations while the average number of drugs per prescription was found high. There were small differences in the values of drugs prescribed by generic names, injectable and drugs from NLEM from the recommended values.