ArticleBulletin of the World Health Organization2023
Overuse of medications in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review.
Article in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Electronic medicine management systems in developing countries: A landscape review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Overuse of computed tomography for mild head injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach to optimise outpatient mental, neurological, and substance-use disorder treatment cascades in Mozambique: a cluster-randomised trial.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Improving Medication Management in Indonesian Aged Care Homes: Research Priority Setting With Stakeholders.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2026Article
- Global under- and overprescribing of drugs-a scoping review.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Deprescribing of proton pump inhibitors in internal medicine in-patients: A retrospective observational study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Iron-ascorbate complex formation and redox behavior in Tris buffer under aerobic and anaerobic conditions: relevance to iron-deficiency anemia.Journal of biological inorganic chemistry : JBIC : a publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry · 2026Article
- Medication Safety Gaps in Older Adults Across Outpatient and Inpatient Care in Peru: Evidence from Beers and STOPP/START Criteria.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Bridging clinical needs and economic barriers: a national survey of antidepressant prescribing across 25 hospitals in Thailand.International journal of mental health systems · 2026Article
- Evaluation of polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication use among geriatric individuals aged 80 years and older.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Prevalence and characteristics of allergic disease among pediatric patients of urban, rural, and remote primary care clinics: A multisite study in the Philippines.Asia Pacific allergy · 2026Article
- Social determinants of health equity for people with pain: from understanding to action.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Health technology reassessment and disinvestment instruments: a scoping review.Health research policy and systems · 2026Review
- Association between proton pump inhibitor use and muscle mass: a US population-based study.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Article
- An assessment of medication errors and associated factors to strengthen patient safety practices in a tertiary hospital in Cameroon.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2026Article
- Assessing potentially inappropriate medication use among older adults in Central and Eastern Europe.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Treatment Patterns, Cough Formulations, and Antibiotics Usage for Pediatric Acute Cough in India: A Real-World Study.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2025Article
- Non-adherence to surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines: findings from a mixed-methods study in a developing country.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2025Article
- Medication Management in Patients With Polypharmacy in Primary Care: A Scoping Review of Clinical Practice Guidelines.Journal of evidence-based medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Objective: To identify and summarize the evidence about the extent of overuse of medications in low- and middle-income countries, its drivers, consequences and potential solutions. Methods: We conducted a scoping review by searching the databases PubMed®, Embase®, APA PsycINFO® and Global Index Medicus using a combination of MeSH terms and free text words around overuse of medications and overtreatment. We included studies in any language published before 25 October 2021 that reported on the extent of overuse, its drivers, consequences and solutions. Findings: We screened 3489 unique records and included 367 studies reporting on over 5.1 million prescriptions across 80 low- and middle-income countries - with studies from 58.6% (17/29) of all low-, 62.0% (31/50) of all lower-middle- and 60.0% (33/55) of all upper-middle-income countries. Of the included studies, 307 (83.7%) reported on the extent of overuse of medications, with estimates ranging from 7.3% to 98.2% (interquartile range: 30.2-64.5). Commonly overused classes included antimicrobials, psychotropic drugs, proton pump inhibitors and antihypertensive drugs. Drivers included limited knowledge of harms of overuse, polypharmacy, poor regulation and financial influences. Consequences were patient harm and cost. Only 11.4% (42/367) of studies evaluated solutions, which included regulatory reforms, educational, deprescribing and audit-feedback initiatives. Conclusion: Growing evidence suggests overuse of medications is widespread within low- and middle-income countries, across multiple drug classes, with few data of solutions from randomized trials. Opportunities exist to build collaborations to rigorously develop and evaluate potential solutions to reduce overuse of medications.
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Registered trials
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.