ArticlePharmacology research & perspectives2025
Evaluating Rational Drug Use in Developing Countries: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Prescribing Patterns Against WHO Indicators in Pakistan and Yemen.
Article in Pharmacology research & perspectives, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Evaluating Rational Drug Use in Developing Countries: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Prescribing Patterns Against WHO Indicators in Pakistan and Yemen.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The rational use of medications is essential for optimal healthcare delivery, especially in developing countries. This research delves into prescribing patterns within the healthcare system of Pakistan and Yemen against World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators to uncover variances from recommended practices. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient department of different hospitals in Pakistan and Yemen, including 400 prescriptions. Demographic details and prescription data were collected, focusing on WHO prescribing indicators including the average number of drugs per encounter, the percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name, the percentage of drugs prescribed from the essential drug list, and the prevalence of antibiotic and injectable prescriptions. The mean age of patients was 43.54 ± 16.92 and 38.81 ± 18.67 years in Pakistan and Yemen, respectively. Polypharmacy was observed in both populations, with an average of 5.44 ± 1.16 drugs per encounter in Pakistan and 6.18 ± 1.09 in Yemen. Irrational antibiotic use was observed, with rates of 65% and 72.5% encounters in Pakistan and Yemen, respectively. The mean injectable medications per hospital were 28.5 (57%) and 34 (68%) in Pakistan and Yemen, respectively. In Pakistan, the mean percentage of generic prescribing was 74.18%, while in Yemen, it was 78.24%. The total percentage of drugs prescribed from the essential drug list was 98.24% in Pakistan, whereas 97.87% in Yemen. The findings reveal significant deviations from WHO prescribing indicators marked by polypharmacy and excessive antimicrobial and injectable utilization, which pose risks to patient safety and contribute to antimicrobial resistance.
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.