Assessment of morbidities and pattern of medication use among medical in-patients in a university teaching hospital South-South Nigeria

Aim: The pattern of morbidities in a setting often influences the pattern of medications prescribed. Intensified global efforts to improve the rational use of medications necessitated the development of medication use indicators. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, prospective study in which inpatients admitted into the internal medicine wards of a teaching hospital over a 9-month period between December 2015 and August 2016 were evaluated on specific days following admission using the World Health Organization-International Network for the Rational Use of Drugs (WHO-INRUD) prescribing indicators. Results: A total of 507 patients were evaluated; 269 patients (53.1%) were male, 238 patients (46.9%) were females, and their age range was 17–89 years. The most common morbidities among these inpatients were infectious diseases such as Malaria (18.9%) and HIV/AIDS (17.2%). The noninfectious disease conditions, diabetes mellitus (17%), and hypertension (16.8%) were next in prevalence. Most patients (412 patients; 81.3%) had more than one morbidity. The most commonly prescribed medications were 5% glucose in saline (300 patients; 59.2%), Vitamin B complex (257 patients; 50.7%), and furosemide (183 patients; 36.1%). The average number of medications prescribed per patient during admission was 9.1 ± 3.8 drugs, while the median number of medications used during admission was eight drugs. The percentage of medications prescribed by generic names was 85.6%, while 88.1% of medications were prescribed from the essential medicines list. Conclusion: The pattern of medication use was largely in-keeping and consistent with the pattern of morbidities despite confirmatory diagnosis and symptomatic treatment observed in most instances. This translates to rational and safer pharmacotherapy practices as the modified WHO-INRUD prescribing indicator will be a useful monitoring tool for rational medication prescriptions among inpatients.