Evaluation of the Drug Utilization Pattern among Pregnant Women in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

A retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital to evaluate the drug utilization pattern in pregnant women. A total of 876 pregnant women were enrolled in the study. Parameters such as demography, gravidity, comorbid illness, neonatal outcome, drugs prescribed and their utilization details were collected. The mean age of the study population was found to be 29.4±4.4 y (mean±standard deviation). Majority of them underwent caesarean section (68.2 %) compared to normal vaginal delivery (31.8 %). Most of the neonates were healthy (94.3 %) whereas 0.8 % of the neonates expired during the postnatal period. Diabetes mellitus (33.6 %) was the most common comorbidity, followed by hypertension (28.3 %) and thyroid disorders (18.3 %). Folic acid (15.7 %) and calcium (15.2 %) were the most prescribed drugs, followed by ferrous fumarate (7.1 %), vitamin B12 (5.3 %) and vitamin B6 (3.4 %). In terms of defined daily dose/100 bed d, levothyroxine (369.3) was the most frequently utilized drug, followed by digoxin (53.6), dydrogesterone (27.4) and salbutamol (20.5). Estradiol was only the food and drug administration pregnancy category X drug prescribed, as estradiol supplement as this was required to improve pregnancy rates after in vitro fertilization.