ABSTRACT:
Objective: The primary objective was to evaluate the drug utilization 90% for drugs prescribed at a health center, Mumbai. The secondary objective was to assess proportion of generic drugs, essential drugs, injectable drugs, and cost of drugs prescribed in these prescriptions. Method: This cross sectional study was conducted at Health Center of Mumbai University over a period of three months. Prescriptions from 200 patients visiting health center were collected after written informed consent. All drug utilization was quantified in terms of defined daily dose (DDD), and retail cost, and classified according to Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) system. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data as per age, gender, drugs satisfying DU90 percent, generic drugs, essential drugs, use of injectable drugs, cost of prescription, class of drugs. Result: Total 200 prescriptions were studied.133 prescriptions belonged to males and 67 to females. Most of the patients belonged to age above 30 years. Analgesic, Antipyretic, Antihistaminic, Antispasmodic, Antibiotic, H2 blockers are utilized 90 percent. The number of drugs per prescription varied from 1 to 5 drugs with almost half of the prescriptions (51%) containing three drugs. 8.5% of drugs were in injectable form .95% of prescriptions contained drugs by generic name while 92% prescriptions contained essential drugs. Analgesic and antipyretic, Antibiotics, H2 blocker are the most frequently prescribed drug classes. Conclusion: This study concluded that Analgesic, Antipyretic, Antihistaminic, Antispasmodic, Antibiotic, H2 blockers are utilized 90 percent. Practice of prescribing drugs by generic names and prescribing essential drugs was satisfactory.