Evaluation of Drug Utilization During Pregnancy in Teaching Hospital of Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

The objective of the study is to evaluate the drug utilization pattern among pregnant women visiting teaching hospital Hyderabad. A cross sectional study was conducted on out-patients by collecting prescriptions and analyzing data using structured data analysis sheet from November 2017 to May 2018. The number of total 300 prescriptions was collected via purposive sampling from teaching hospital Hyderabad. Total 300 pregnant women were included in this observational study. The majority of expecting mothers (68.7%) were in the last trimester of pregnancy and 11.0% were in the first trimester of pregnancy. Multigravida women were in the majority. Most of the medicines were advised from the US-FDA Category-A (62.25%) and rest of the medicines were from the Category-C (22.41%), Category-B (12.58%) and Category-D (2.75%). These finding revealed that overall prescription pattern is appropriate to a good degree. The most frequently prescribed class of drugs was minerals and vitamins followed by antispasmodics, antibiotics and antifungals. On the other hand, least number of drugs advised by generic name implies necessity for genuine exertions for the improvement of existing situation.