ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2023
Assessment of prescription completeness and drug use pattern using WHO prescribing indicators in private community pharmacies in Addis Ababa: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Medication errors in community pharmacies: a systematic review of the international literature.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Antidiabetic prescribing patterns, quality, and economic influence in resource-limited settings: evidence from a Pakistani tertiary care hospital using WHO/INRUD indicators.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Irrational medicine use and its associated factors in conflict-affected areas in Mali: a cross-sectional study.Global health action · 2025Article
- Assessment of drug utilization evaluation and post-dispensing knowledge of ophthalmic medications: an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Evaluation of Prescription Practices Using WHO/INRUD Indicators and Determinants of Polypharmacy at a Kenyan County Referral Hospital.Advances in pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences · 2025Article
- An Evaluation of Drug Prescribing Patterns and Prescription Completeness.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The effect of prescription patterns on the performance of the pharmacy department of a Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Rational Medicines Use Based on World Health Organization Core Indicators: A Cross-Sectional Study in Five Health Districts in Mauritania.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2024Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundHealthcare systems in both developing and developed countries were not free from prescription errors. One of the effects of prescription errors is irrational prescribing. According to the estimation of the World Health Organization (WHO), greater than 50% of medicines are prescribed and dispensed irrationally. On the other hand, research on drug use patterns in the private healthcare sector is scarce. This study aimed to assess prescription Completeness and Drug use Pattern using WHO prescribing indicators in Private Community Pharmacies in Lemi-Kura sub-city.
methodsBased on the WHO prescribing indicators, a retrospective cross-sectional technique was employed to examine the completeness and drug-prescription patterns. The study was conducted from April to May 2021. Prescriptions, kept for 1 year that was prescribed from March 2020 to March 2021, by private healthcare sectors, were analyzed. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select prescriptions obtained from private health facilities. Data were analyzed using SPSS
resultsOf a total of 1000 prescriptions, 1770 drugs were prescribed and the average number of drugs per prescription was 1.77. Prescriptions for two drugs account for 38% of these, while prescriptions for three drugs account for 15%. Age, sex, and card number were written on 99.0%, 99.2%, and 41.8% of prescriptions, respectively. The patient's name was written on every prescription. Even though the availability of other therapeutic information on the prescription made it appear greater, only 44.2% of prescriptions included the dosage form of medications. The generic name was used for the majority of the medications (67.8%). Furthermore, assuming that each prescription was for a single patient, 71% of patients received antibiotics, and 2% received injectable medicines. The National List of Essential Medicines-Ethiopia was used in 99.6% of the prescriptions.
conclusionsOn the basis of the finding of this study, the prescribing and prescription completeness indicator showed deviation from the standard recommended by WHO. This situation could be critical since a similar pattern is reported from public healthcare sectors, which might imply the extent of non-adherence to WHO core drug use standards. Consequently, it could play a considerable role in increasing prescription errors in Ethiopia. Hence, in-service training for prescribers should be provided to improve adherence to basic prescription writing.
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