Prescribing pattern of antidiabetic drugs in type 2 diabetic patients of Noakhali city in Bangladesh

Abstract

The aim of the study was to describe the recent trends in the prescription pattern of antidiabetic drugs and sociodemographic characteristics of type 2 diabetic patients in Noakhali city of Bangladesh. This hospital based prospective, cross-sectional study was carried out in three diabetic hospitals of Noakhali during the period of December, 2016 to February, 2017. A total of 200 outpatients were included in this study by following simple random procedure. Among 200 participants, 73.5% were treated with monotherapy and 26.5% were treated with polytherapy with the highest percentage (37.5%) of commonly prescribed group drugs of sulfonylureas, but lonely metformin (biguanide) was the most commonest (28%) drug among oral hypoglycemic agents. The most accounted fixed dose combination was sulfonylurea with biguanide, and biguanide with glucodiase inhibitors. The highly prescribed insulin preparations was insulin mixtures (11%) among the patients. Drugs were prescribed by traditional brand names (100%) of different local or foreign companies and 15% of prescription were contained at least one multivitamin supplement. It was focused from this study that oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA) yet dominate the prescribing pattern, but there was a shifting trend towards insulin preparation in the management of Type 2 diabetes mellitus.