Assessment of drug prescribing among pregnant women attending antenatal out patient department of a referral hospital in Ethiopia

B. Legesse

Research output: Contribution to journalMeeting abstractpeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: To assess drug prescription pattern in pregnant women attending antenatal outpatient department of Ayder Referral Hospital, Northern Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted by reviewing patient cards of 214 pregnant women who received antenatal care in outpatient department of gynecology and obstetrics of Ayder Referral Hospital (ARH) from February 24 to April 30, 2014.

Results: A total of 214 pregnant women’ cards were reviewed and only 145(67.75%) of them were prescribed one or more medications. Fifty two (35.86%), 68(46.89%), 22(15.17%) and 3(2.06%) of the pregnant women received one, two, three and four medications, respectively. An average of 1.84 drugs per pregnant woman were prescribed following ANC follow up. FDA category of the most prescribed drugs to the pregnant women were category A 113(42.44%), category C 83(30.87%) and category B 69(25.76%). One (0.72%) drug was prescribed from category D and no medication was prescribed from category X in the study period. Iron with folic acid 105(39.32%) was the most frequently prescribed drug, other minerals and vitamins prescribed included multivitamins 5(1.87%), hem up syrup 49(1.49%), vitamin-B complex 2 (0.74 %) and pyridoxine 1(0.37%). Tetanus toxoid (TT) 69(25.84%) was the most commonly used immunization and amoxicillin was the third most prescribed drug 41(15.35%). All the drugs (100%) were prescribed in generic name. One hundred thirty four (62.04%) drugs were taken orally, 1(0.46%) was administered vaginally and the injectables, 78(36.11%) were IV and 3(1.38%) were IM. The injectables that have been prescribed during ANC included Anti-D and TT.

Conclusions: The average number of drugs prescribed was 1.84 per pregnant woman. The pharmacological class of most frequently prescribed drugs were anti-anemic and antibiotics. The most commonly prescribed drugs were iron with folic acid and amoxacillin. Majority of the prescribed drugs fall in FDA categories A, C and B.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)A565
Number of pages1
JournalValue in Health
Volume18
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2015
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Assessment of drug prescribing among pregnant women attending antenatal out patient department of a referral hospital in Ethiopia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this