ArticlePrimary health care research & development2019
Primary health care physicians' prescribing patterns for children under five in Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
Article in Primary health care research & development, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns of Family Medicine Pediatric Visits: A Pharmacoepidemiological Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Pediatric Medication Prescribing Across Urgent Care Visits: An Epidemiologic View from a Primary Care Setting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prescribing Patterns in a Primary Care Service in a Rural Site in the Philippines from April 2019 to March 2020 - A Cross-sectional Study.Acta medica Philippina · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Rational Use of Medicine Using WHO/INRUD Core Drug Use Indicators at Teda and Azezo Health Centers, Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2021Article
- Community ophthalmology clinic utilization and morbidities results from a private primary healthcare center in Saudi Arabia.Saudi journal of ophthalmology : official journal of the Saudi Ophthalmological SocietyArticle
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3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundIrrational prescription of drugs in children is reported to be widespread. There are scarce studies on the pediatric prescribing pattern especially at primary health care (PHC) level.
aimTo determine the physicians' prescribing patterns for children under five years, to explore completeness of prescriptions' recorded information, and to analyze the core indicators of drug prescribing at primary health care centers (PHCC) in Qassim.
methodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 25 randomly selected PHCCs. All prescriptions, for the first week of first six months of the year 1437 Hijrah (October 2015 to April 2016), were reviewed. Among 25 012 prescriptions, 4125 (16.5%) were for children under five years. We randomly selected 1212 prescriptions for the study. World Health Organization (WHO) specified drug use indicators, and index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) with a maximum value of 5, were calculated. The physicians and pharmacists of sampled PHCCs were also surveyed to explore prescribing issues.
findingsThe completeness of recorded date, patient age, and gender was more than 90%. The diagnosis was legibly written in 842 (69.5%), while the patient weight was recorded in 307 (25.3%) prescriptions. The least commonly recorded instruction was the drug strength (26.8%), while the dose and frequency of use were stated for 91.3% and 90.8% of the drugs, respectively. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.35 ± 0.89; 72.97% drugs were prescribed by generic name; in 65.98% patient encounters, antibiotics were prescribed. The overall IRDP was 3.56. Most of the physicians and pharmacists reported availability of the drug list and Saudi PHC formulary in their PHCCs.
conclusionPHC physicians' drug prescribing was not at the optimal level of rational use, especially regarding prescription of antibiotics. Creating awareness about rational drug use and hazards of overuse of antibiotics is needed.
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