Assessment of Prescribing Patterns of Quinolones in a Tertiary Health Institution

Abstract

Irrational and inappropriate drug use is a major concern in developed and developing countries. Appropriate drug utilization studies are important to evaluate drug utilization in terms of efficacy, safety and cost. The objective of this study was to assess the rational prescribing of quinolones in a tertiary health institution with respect to age, dosage, duration, diagnoses treated, economic implications, generic prescribing, and most commonly prescribed quinolones. This was a retrospective study involving 403 prescriptions that had quinolones at the general outpatient department of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State between January 2006 and December 2007. Patients within 21-30 years of age had the highest percentage (27.1%), those less than 18 years had 5.1% while those above 70 years had 4.4% of the prescribed quinolones. Ciprofloxacin was the most commonly prescribed (74.5%) at twice daily dose for seven days duration although it was prescribed in its branded name. The disease most frequently treated included respiratory tract infections (26.8%) while the least was peptic ulcer disease (4.9%). This study found appropriateness of quinolones use in this health facility with regards to diagnosis treated, dose, duration and not being used in pregnant women. But some forms of irrational drug prescribing were found in the areas of prescribing for 5.1% of children less than 18 years. Also some of the drugs were prescribed with their brand names and this is not encouraged in rational drug prescribing. Strict rational drug prescribing should be encouraged to avoid adverse effect, non adherence and drug resistance in this hospital.

Keywords: Quinolones, rational prescribing, Tertiary health institution

Nigerian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 9 No 2 pp. 49 – 54 (September 2011)