Assessment of prescribing patterns and medication errors related to prescriptions in hospitalized diabetes mellitus type-2 patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM type-2) is a common, non-transmittable disease that affects people all over the world. Polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing are more common in diabetic individuals. One of the most critical and fundamental abilities a doctor requires is the ability to write prescriptions. In emerging countries like Pakistan, irrational drug prescribing is a major healthcare issue. This study aims to investigate the prescriptions errors in patients with DM type-2 prescriptions admitted in medical wards and outpatients’ visits departments at Khyber teaching hospital. In the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar, a prospective study was done to determine medicine prescribing patterns and identify prescription errors in hospitalized patients with DM type-2. Over the course of two months, 86 patients’ prescriptions were collected from the hospital’s medical ward. The pattern of prescriptions was investigated using WHO-recommended indicators, and prescription mistakes were identified. DM type-2 was shown to be substantially more common in females than in males in this clinical investigation. For the data analysis, various statistical methods were used and data were visualized. DM type-2 was more common in adults above the age of 65, according to age groups (51–60). It was revealed that the average number of medications per prescription was 8.37%. In this study, we discovered that patients with DM type-2 had higher rates of hypertension than those with other disorders. The percentage of prescriptions with generic names was 3.61%, antibiotics were 15.69%, and injectables were 47.22% of the total 720 medications prescribed. The dose strength was absent in 18.75% of the 720 medications, and 6.25% of the pharmaceuticals had an incorrect dosage form. To promote reasonable drug therapy, the prescription pattern and prescription errors have highlighted the necessity to build an accurate system of documenting and analysing therapy before issuing a prescription.