Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research



A study of prescribing patterns in high-risk pregnancy at a tertiary care hospital

Lavanya Pawar, Vishwanath M, Sanjay M Chavan, Vishwanath M.




Abstract

Background: High-risk pregnancy is defined as pregnancy complicated by factors that can adversely affect maternal and perinatal outcome. About 10–30% of pregnancies are high risk which accounts for 70–80% perinatal mortality and morbidity. Drug utilization data help to monitor the drugs prescribed and to assess the outcome by evaluating appropriateness and rationality of prescription.

Aims and Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the pattern of drug use in high-risk pregnancy and to assess the WHO core prescribing indicator and US FDA category.

Materials and Methods: A total of 250 case record forms of pregnant women admitted to high-risk ward were analyzed. Patient’s demographic data and detailed information about prescription were recorded and analyzed as per the WHO core drug prescribing indicators and US-FDA category. Descriptive statistics were used.

Results: A total of 1121 drugs were prescribed among which antimicrobials (33.7%) were used more frequently followed by antihypertensive (13.9%), intravenous (609, 54.2%) route was the major route of drug administration, followed by oral (527, 47%), intramuscular (33, 2.9%), and subcutaneous (16, 1.4%). Average number of drugs per encounter was 4.48, percentage of encounters with an antimicrobials prescribed is around 70.4%, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 93.5%, percentage of drugs prescribed from essential drugs list was 73.3%, and percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed was 50.4%. Majority of drugs belong to the US-FDA pregnancy Category B (45.04%), followed by Category C (39.4%), A (10.8%), and D (4.6%).

Conclusion: Majority of drugs were prescribed by generic name and belonged to Category B drugs which are considered safe. Standards of prescription were in accordance with the WHO prescribing indicators. Overall prescribing behavior is rational and encouraging.

Key words: High-Risk Pregnancy; Pre-eclampsia; Prescribing Indicators; US-FDA Category






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.