Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33741042›Full record

ReviewJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2021

Evaluation of drug prescription pattern using World Health Organization prescribing indicators in public health facilities found in Ethiopia: systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

Bereket Bahiru Tefera, Melese Getachew, Bekalu Kebede

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Prescribing pattern of antibiotics by family physicians in primary health care.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023
    Article
  6. Adherence to Prescribing Indicators at a District Hospital in Ghana: Do We Match WHO Standards?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Bereket Bahiru TeferaDepartment of Pharmacy, Debre Markos University, College of Health Science, Po Box 269, Debre Markos, Ethiopia. brktbahiru@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1758-348X
Melese GetachewDepartment of Pharmacy, Debre Markos University, College of Health Science, Po Box 269, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
Bekalu KebedeDepartment of Pharmacy, Debre Markos University, College of Health Science, Po Box 269, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDrug use evaluation is a structured, methodological, and criteria-based drug assessment system that helps to evaluate the actual trend of drug use in a particular setting. If drug prescription practices are inappropriate, need to examine the patterns of drug use is necessary to change prescribing patterns accordingly. Therefore, this review aimed to determine the drug prescription pattern in public health facilities found in Ethiopia using prescribing indicators developed by the World Health Organization.

methodsThis review was conducted as per the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guideline. Extensive searching to identify articles was conducted in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Research Gate, Africa Journal of Online, and Google scholar. Finally, 10 eligible articles were selected for analysis based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The median value, as well as the 25th and 75th percentiles for each WHO prescribing indicator, were computed.

resultThe pooled median value of WHO prescribing indicators was reported as follows: the average number of drugs prescribed per encounter = 2.14 (IQR 1.79-2.52), the percentage of encounters with antibiotics prescribed = 43.46% (IQR 30.01-58.67), the percentage of encounters with an injection prescribed = 13.20% (6.47-40.7), percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name = 93.49% (89.13-97.96), and the percentage of medicines prescribed from essential medicines list = 92.54% (85.10-97.7). The forest plots determined for each prescribing indicator indicated that there is a high degree of heterogeneity across articles.

conclusionAll of the prescribing indicators were not consistent with the standard values recommended by the World Health Organization. Therefore, public health facilities should take appropriate measures for improving the prescription patterns as per the recommendation set by the World Health Organization.

Indexed as

Drug use evaluationDrug use patterLiterature reviewPrescribing indicatorWorld Health Organization

Identifiers

PMID33741042
PMCPMC7980606

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.