Prescribing Practice for Geriatric Patients in Selected Hospitals

Abstract

Due to the improvement of medical facility the elderly population in Bangladesh continues to rise. Management of many acute and chronic disease for the aging population have contributed to wide-rangemedication use among aged patients, these circumstancesmay lead to drug related problem (DRPs) especially unnecessary drug therapy. The aim of this study was to identify unnecessary drug therapy on outdoor geriatric patients and to investigate whether polypharmacy is a suitable indicator for occurrence of redundant or irrational drug therapy in a hospital outdoor patients. Research type was cross-sectional. Data taken through preformed questionnaire among outdoor geriatric patients. The study was conducted with inclusion criteria: patient with 60 year and above.Total of 120 patients were under study during a 7-month period from February, 2013to August, 2013.An average of 4.30 drugs was prescribed.50% of thedrugs were prescribed by generic name & 50% in brand name.Polypharmacy was observed in 35.83% of total patients. The maximum number of 12 prescribed drugs were received by The maximum number of 12 prescribed drugs are received by 0.84% patients. Among the total patients 6.66% patients receive single drug. 30% of patients received 5-7 medecine& 5% off patients received 8-10 drugs.About 24.16% were prescribed antibiotics and 10.19%of total drug was combination of calcium carbonate and vitamin D. Most of the geriatric patients (89.16%) were counseled for more than 5 minutes. Prevention of redundant drug therapy problem can be conducted through promoting the rational use of drug (it is recommended to reduce all medications without therapeutic benefit, goal or indication). This study exposesthe prescription trends, and indicates possible areas of improvement in prescribing practice.