Open AccessPrescription pattern of clinicians in private health facilities in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria
Author(s) -
Igbiks Tamuno
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
asian pacific journal of tropical disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.208
H-Index - 33
ISSN - 2222-1808
DOI - 10.1016/s2222-1808(11)60037-6
Subject(s) - medical prescription , polypharmacy , medicine , family medicine , health facility , health care , intervention (counseling) , environmental health , health services , medical emergency , intensive care medicine , nursing , population , economic growth , economics
Objective: To evaluate the prescription pattern of clinicians in private health care facilities\udin Kano, Northwestern Nigeria. Methods: One thousand prescriptions from ten private health\udfacilities in Kano were evaluated retrospectively using WHO prescribing indicators. Results:\udAverage number of drugs per encounter in these health facilities was 3.20. Generic prescribing\udwas low at 55.40% while encounters with antibiotic prescription were high at 43.80%. About 91.20%\udof prescribed drugs were listed in the national essential drug list while 83.30% of the drugs for\udtreatment of common health problems were available in these facilities. Nearly 18% of encounters\udhad at least one injection prescribed while antihypertensives, analgesics, antimalarials, vitamins\udand anxiolytics were prescribed in 11.80%, 61.30%, 30.20%, 21.50% and 12.30% of encounters,\udrespectively. Conclusions: Polypharmacy, overuse of antibiotics and injections, and low rate of\udgeneric prescribing occur in private health facilities in Kano. Therefore, there is a need to draw\udattention to the educational intervention