PATTERNS OF DRUG PRESCRIBING AND PRESCRIBING ERRORS IN IN-PATIENT PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENTS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN.

Abstract

The present study was planned to describe the trend of drug prescribing, prescribing errors including drug–drug interactions in prescriptions collected from in-patient pediatric departments of two government-sector hospitals in Karachi. A prospective observational study through simple random sampling was conducted from 1 December 2017 to 28 February 2018. The World Health Organization (WHO) core indicator, prescribing trend and errors in writing prescriptions, was evaluated in the selected prescriptions. Drug prescribing had a mean of 4.36 drugs per prescription (standard deviation = 1.89). Ceftriaxone and paracetamol were the most recurrently prescribed drugs. The number of drugs was significant in predicting drug–drug interactions in the prescription of pediatrics (sig. 0.006). Prescriptions with more than 5 drugs were 5.19 times more prone to have drug–drug interactions than prescriptions with less than 5 drugs. Pakistani children received a higher number of drugs in their prescription in perspective of the permissible range of 1.6–1.8 drugs per encounter by WHO. Prescribing by brand names was the choice of most of the pediatrician; however, increasing generic prescribing would rationalize the use and trim down the cost of drugs. The establishment of antibiotic stewardship programs at tertiary care hospitals might improve the over-prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics like ceftriaxone. The absence of the latest national essential list of medicines at the pediatric ward was noted. Further nationwide studies should be proposed to ascertain the entire representation of pediatric prescription in our country.