EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL UTILIZATION USING WHO-PRESCRIBING INDICATORS AT A RURAL TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN NORTHERN INDIA

Introduction: Due to the appropriate use of antibacterials, management of infectious diseases has undergone a revolutionary change. However, inappropriate use leads to several problems, including increased antibacterial resistance, adverse drug reactions, infection severity, increased treatment cost, and health care burden. Antibacterials drug utilization studies are valuable in overcoming the inappropriate and promoting the appropriate use of antibacterials. Therefore, the current study aims to estimate the pattern of antibacterial drug utilization by using WHO prescribing indicators. Material & Methods: A Non-interventional, Cross-sectional study was conducted among 800 OPD patients of SHKM, GMC, Nuh, and Haryana over a period of 12 months. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select prescriptions during data collection. Data processing and analysis were done using SPSS version 20. Results: 2105 patients were screened, and 800 patients were included in the study based on inclusion criteria. It was found that the maximum number of patients were in the adult age group (43%), followed by 29.8% in the paediatric age group. There were 4.56 drugs prescribed per patient, of which 1.36 were antibacterials. The percentage of encounters with at least one antibacterial was 38%, and the percentage of antibacterials prescribed by generic name was 45%. A total of 0.50% of antibacterials were prescribed in injectable form, and 87.3%were prescribed from the essential drugs list. Conclusion: The use of antibacterials weren’t high, but more efforts are needed to enhance the rational use of antibacterial drugs.