ArticleTherapeutic advances in drug safety2025
Adherence to WHO/INRUD prescription indicators in public hospitals: evidence from the Ashanti Region, Ghana.
Article in Therapeutic advances in drug safety, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Knowledge, awareness, and practices of adverse drug reaction reporting among healthcare professionals in the Ashanti region of Ghana.Indian journal of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Barriers to and facilitators of adherence to evidence-based standard antimicrobial treatment guidelines among physicians in Ethiopia: a formative qualitative study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Rational prescribing optimizes medicine use, reduces costs, and improves patient outcomes. However, adherence to rational prescribing practices varies, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like Ghana, where healthcare systems differ across urban, peri-urban, and rural settings. Objectives: This study assessed adherence to WHO/INRUD prescribing indicators in public hospitals and determined each hospital's Index of Rational Drug Prescribing (IRDP). Design: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted in 25 public hospitals across rural, peri-urban, and urban settings in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Methods: Data from 5091 patient encounters were analyzed to assess prescribing indicators, including the average number of medicines per encounter, generic prescribing, adherence to the Essential Medicines List (EML), antibiotic use, and injection prescribing. IRDP scores were calculated, and geographic comparisons were performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), with Results: No hospital met the WHO target of <2 medicines per encounter (regional average: 3.63 ± 0.62). Generic prescribing averaged 72.26%, and EML adherence was 91.85%, with no hospital achieving 100%. Antibiotic prescribing exceeded the <30% target, averaging 60.84%. Injection use aligned best with WHO standards (average: 13.42%), with 22 of 25 hospitals meeting the <20% threshold. The regional IRDP was 3.67, with rural hospitals scoring lowest (3.63), followed by peri-urban (3.64) and urban hospitals (3.81). No significant geographic differences in IRDP scores were observed ( Conclusion: While injection use aligns with WHO standards, gaps remain in generic prescribing, antibiotic use, and EML adherence. Strengthening prescriber training, antimicrobial stewardship programs, and policy enforcement is essential to improving prescribing practices and patient outcomes in public hospitals in the Ashanti Region.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.