ASSESSMENT OF DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN DURING PREGNANCY IN ADAMA RIFERRAL HOSPITAL, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Background: Rational drug use in pregnancy requires the benefits and potential risk associated with the use of the drug. The adverse effect of drugs on the fetus varies temporarily with time.  The fetus susceptibility to injury depends on its period of development of different organs have different critical periods through the span from gestational day 15 to day 60 is critical for many organs.

Objective: To assess the pattern of drug use among pregnant women in Adama Referral Hospital, Oromia region, Ethiopia.

Methods: All drug prescriptions of pregnant women prescribed from December 1, 2011 to May 30 2011 were reviewed retrospectively using structured data collection format.

Result: A total of 381 pregnant women prescriptions were included in the study. The average maternal age in the study was 26.74 years. A total of 176(24.44%), 336(46.66%) and 208(28.88%) drugs with an average 2.2, 1.13 and 1.83 per pregnant women were used in first, second and third trimesters respectively. Minerals and vitamins 209(29%) were the most frequently prescribed drugs followed by Antibiotics 173(24%) and analgesics 149(20.7%). Majority of the drugs were prescribed from risk category B 449(62.4%) followed by risk category C 131(18.2%) and risk category A 98(13.6%). 37(5.13%) of the drugs were received from risk category D.

Conclusion: Gastrointestinal infection occurred most frequently followed by genitor-urinary tract infections. Vitamins, minerals, paracetamol and amoxicillin were most frequently prescribed drugs. The average number of drugs per prescription was comparable with a standard set by WHO, indicating that poly pharmacy was not practiced. The occurrence of contraindicated medicines was desirably low.