Article Sidebar
Article Details
Issue
Section
Articles
A. AFRICAN HEALTH SCIENCES OPEN ACCESS POLICY
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Potential drug-drug interactions on in-patient medication prescriptions at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) in western Uganda: prevalence, clinical importance and associated factors
Abstract
Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are an important cause of adverse drug reactions. The pharmacoepidemiology of such interactions in hospitals in Uganda is not known. Objectives: To determine the prevalence, clinical importance and factors associated with potential DDIs at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH), western Uganda. Methods: Retrospective analysis of 235 randomly selected hospitalization episodes (medication charts and medical notes) from MRRH over a 1-year period from January to December 2008. We collected data on demographics, medications, principal diagnosis, co-morbid conditions and the length of hospital stay. Epocrates Rx® was used to identify and classify potential DDIs according to mechanism and management strategy. Descriptive statistics were generated and logistic regression used to determine associated factors. Results: Overall prevalence of potential DDIs was approximately 23% (54 medication charts with at least one potential DDI out of 235 hospitalization episodes). Majority were postulated to occur through a pharmacodynamic mechanism (10.6%) and most required either “use with caution” (11.9%) or “modify treatment/monitor” (10.6%) as a suggested management strategy. After adjusting for confounders: age, sex, hospital department and number of co-morbid conditions, a principal diagnosis of a cardiovascular disease (OR 6.52 95% CI 1.32-32.14) and having 4 or more medicines on the chart (OR 4.30 95% CI 1.98-9.34) were associated with the presence of a potential DDI. Conclusion: Potential DDIs frequently occur at MRRH although most are not clinically significant. Patients with cardiovascular diseases and those who are prescribed multiple medications need to be monitored more closely.
Keywords: drug-drug interactions, pharmacoepidemiology, prevalence, chart review
African Health Sciences 2011; 11(3): 499 - 507
Keywords: drug-drug interactions, pharmacoepidemiology, prevalence, chart review
African Health Sciences 2011; 11(3): 499 - 507
