Analysis of intramuscular injections administered in a family health center

INTRODUCTION: In this study, the objective was to evaluate the intramuscular injections administered to patients admitted to a family health center with sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, analytical and, retrospective file review study. The sample population was formed by patients who had intramuscular injections administered between the dates of January 01, 2017 – and December 31, 2019. A total of 5648 injections for 2059 adults/children were evaluated. The data set was analyzed using SPSS 17.0 (IBM, USA) statistical package program. RESULTS: An average of 2.74 injections per person was administered. The rate of myorelaxant injection administration was higher among women (p<0.001), and the rate of antibiotic and analgesic + myorelaxant injection administrations was higher among men (p<0.001 for both). With the increase of age, the rate of analgesic injection administrations increases (p<0.001) and the rate of antibiotic injection administrations decreases (p<0.001). The highest analgesic + myorelaxant injection administration rate was during autumn, and the lowest was during winter (p=0.001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The results showed that the frequency of analgesic, myorelaxant, antibiotic, steroid, vitamin/mineral, hormone and combination drugs used for intramuscular injection were affected by demographic variables such as age, gender and season. Identifying family health center dynamics may contribute to creating rational health policies.