A prospective study of Vitamin A Utilization in Lagos, Nigeria: Comparing 4 Hospitals

Abstract

Vitamin A was recommended for use by the World Health Organization, (WHO) and other health agencies because of its immense benefit in paediatric practice, particularly for infectious diseases and malnutrition. Also, drug utilization studies are primary in establishing mechanisms to promote the use of this vitamin. Hence, we investigated the use of Vitamin A in 4 referral paediatric units in Lagos, Nigeria. The study was prospective with the use of questionnaires administered to those patients placed on Vitamin A therapy among 380 consecutive patients attending each of the health facilities. The drug was found to be prescribed to cases of measles and malnutrition routinely at the 4 centres. The frequency of prescription, though similar at General Hospital Gbagada, GHG 87(22.9%), General Hospital Ikeja, GHI 89(23.4%), varied significantly between the former 2 hospitals and the specialist facilities; Massey Street Children Hospital, MSCH 162(42.6%) and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH 42(11.1%) p<0.001. Also, there was variation between MSCH and the LUTH p<0.001. The patient's compliance to therapy was almost complete in all the health institutions, this did not correlate with the availability or unavailability of Vitamin A in the pharmacy departments of these hospitals. Adoption of standards expected for drug prescription patterns in specialist health units should reflect factors which may be responsible for variations between such units in the actual requirement for medication.


KEY WORDS: Vitamin A utilization; Four Hospitals; Lagos; Comparison.


Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol.3(2) 2004: 65-68