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

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.