Drug prescribing pattern in elderly patients admitted in medicine department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India - A prescription evaluation study

摘要

The current study was undertaken to evaluate the drug prescribing pattern and prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) among elderly patients admitted in medicine department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Observational study was carried out in patients aged 65 years and above for a period of six months. The data was collected from medical record department. Nearly half (50.24%) of the enrolled patients were in the age group of 65-70 years with male preponderance (54.67%). Cardiovascular diseases were the most common cause for hospitalization (57.14%) and the drugs for the treatment of those diseases were the most frequently prescribed drugs (28.64%). Average number of drugs per prescription was observed as 4.79 (range 2 to 12). Use of fixed dose (FDC) combinations (6.87%), and inappropriate prescribing little higher (3.69%). Only 5.03% of drugs were prescribed by generic name and 70.84% of were conformed to essential drug list. Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing is substantially high. The current study depicts the need to follow the Beer's criteria strictly in mainstream clinical practice to avoid PMIs in elderly.