DOI: 10.36347/sajp.2021.v10i06.003

Pages: 107-110

Background: The availability of essential drugs (medicines considered indispensable for the treatment of a disease) and the affordability of the common people are crucial for the successful functioning of any health system. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate antibiotic uses in the outpatient department by using INRUD indicators. Methods: This study was analytical cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 300 prescription collected from individuals at the outpatient’s department (OPD) of medicine, surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics from July 2011 to June 2012 in Mymensing medical college and hospital, Mymensing, Bangladesh. The study population was comprised of all the patients of OPD of Medicine, surgery, Gynecology and obstetrics. Patients who were visited the emergency, patients who transferred to another department, patient who got admitted during OPD visit and who expired were excluded from the study. Results: A total 300 prescriptions were analyzed during study period. Among the 300 patients, 180 (60.0%) were female and 120 (40.0%) were male. A total 902 individual drugs were prescribed for 300 drugs encounters, giving an average of 3.01 and the average number of drugs per prescription was found to be highest (3.05) in the gynecology and obstetrics OPD and the lowest (2.97) in the surgery OPD. It was also estimated that the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.00 in the medicine OPD. Conclusions: Special attention needs to be given to outpatient department where significant irrational prescribing in the terms of polypharmacy and relative absence of the directions about the use of drugs was evident.