Evaluation of Prescription Pattern for Internal Medicines Outpatients using World Health Organization Indicators

Abstract

Rational use of drugs plays an important role in efficacy and safety. World Health Organization
(WHO) developed a set of indicators to assess medicines precribing pattern. The aim of
this study was to evaluate the rational use of drugs among internal medicines outpatients at
a hospital in Papua, Indonesia, using WHO prescribing indicators. This study was a retrospective
observational study conducted during January-March 2014. The data were obtained
from patients medical prescriptions. From each prescriptions, data regarding the the total
number of drugs, generic, antibiotics, parenteral, and essential drugs were extracted. A total
of 2025 medical precriptions were included in this study. We found out that the average
number of drugs per prescription was 2.3. Majority of the prescribed drugs were generic
(84.14%). The use of antibiotics, parenteral drugs, and essential drugs were 33.43%, 3.40%,
and 60.13%, respectively. Polypharmacy was relatively low among the subjects. The medicines
prescribing patterns among internal medicines outpatients were in accordance with
WHO recommendation.

Keywords: prescribing indicator, polypharmacy, essential drugs