Tegegnie Alemu Bezabih, Alene Tamiru, Bogale Habtamu Nega, Tamir Workineh, Sineshaw Meaza Molla
Department of Dermatovenereology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2025 Jan 8;11:1499974. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1499974. eCollection 2024.
Irrational use of medicines is a problem globally that soon needs to be addressed. According to estimates from the World Health Organization, almost half of all medications were improperly prescribed. This study aimed to assess the drug prescribing patterns based on World Health Organization drug use indicators in the dermatology outpatient department of Injibara General Hospital.
A facility-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from August 15 to August 30, 2024, with 620 patient prescriptions issued at the dermatology outpatient department of Injibara General Hospital. All patient prescriptions dispensed from the dermatology outpatient department from April to July 2024 were included. A structured data collection tool adopted from the World Health Organization core medicine use indicator was used to collect data, and Statistical Package for Social Science version 27.1 was used for data analysis.
An average of 1.74 drugs per encounters was prescribed, with 21.6 and 3.1% of prescriptions being antibiotics and injections, respectively. Generics were used in 95.4% of prescriptions, and nearly 84% of drugs were prescribed from the Ethiopian essential-drug list.
The World Health Organization's recommended threshold for the average number of prescriptions prescribed per encounter was met, indicating proper prescribing practices that reduce polypharmacy. The percentage of encounters with antibiotics was within the World Health Organization's value, which reflects that dermatologists are less likely engaging in irrational antibiotic prescriptions. Likewise, the World Health Organization's recommendations for the percentage of encounters with injection was met, indicating an effort to minimize unnecessary use of injections by dermatologists, which can reduce complications associated with injection use. However, the World Health Organization's guidelines for generic drug prescriptions were not met, suggesting that dermatologists are less likely to prescribe generic drugs, which can raise patient healthcare expenditures considerably. Prescriptions from the Ethiopian essential medicine list also fell short of World Health Organization's standards, indicating a failure to follow established guidelines.
药物的不合理使用是一个全球性问题，亟待解决。据世界卫生组织估计，几乎一半的药物处方都不合理。本研究旨在根据世界卫生组织的药物使用指标，评估因吉巴拉综合医院皮肤科门诊的药物处方模式。
于2024年8月15日至8月30日进行了一项基于机构的回顾性横断面研究，收集了因吉巴拉综合医院皮肤科门诊开出的620份患者处方。纳入了2024年4月至7月皮肤科门诊发放的所有患者处方。采用世界卫生组织核心药物使用指标中的结构化数据收集工具收集数据，并使用社会科学统计软件包27.1进行数据分析。
每次就诊平均开具1.74种药物，分别有21.6%和3.1%的处方为抗生素和注射剂。95.4%的处方使用了通用名药物，近84%的药物来自埃塞俄比亚基本药物清单。
达到了世界卫生组织建议的每次就诊处方平均数量阈值，表明处方做法合理，减少了多药联用。抗生素处方的比例在世界卫生组织规定的范围内，这反映出皮肤科医生开具不合理抗生素处方的可能性较小。同样，注射剂处方的比例也符合世界卫生组织的建议，表明皮肤科医生努力将不必要的注射剂使用降至最低，这可以减少与注射剂使用相关的并发症。然而，未达到世界卫生组织关于通用名药物处方的指导标准，这表明皮肤科医生开具通用名药物的可能性较小，这可能会大幅增加患者的医疗费用。埃塞俄比亚基本药物清单中的处方也未达到世界卫生组织的标准，表明未遵循既定指南。
