Drug Utilization for Acute Illness at Household Level in Rural Community of Vadu, Pune: A Cross-sectional Study

Drug utilization research is an essential part of pharmacoepidemiology as it describes the extent, nature and determinants of drug exposure. The principal aim of drug utilization research is to facilitate the rational use of drugs in populations. Nowadays Drug utilization studies (DUS) are used as potential tool in the evaluation of healthcare system and also to ascertain the role of drugs in society. It evaluates drug use at a population level, according to age, sex, education, social class, residence area and morbidity.This study was aimed to explore the utilization pattern of medicines available at home with special attention to the types of medicine (with or without prescription) and their appropriate utilization (dosage compliance) and intended self-medication & to determine the use of drugs for the health problems in rural community of Vadu. Community drug-use habits were studied in 200 household units in rural community of Vadu. Descriptive statistics was used for analysis of data. 91.5% (n=183/200) of the investigated families had at least one drug product stored at home. The study revealed the incompliance after relief with repeated use of unfinished stored drugs (55.0%) while 59.3% (n=149/250) of drug exchange among families. The heads of households with education level >10th standard showed more drug-hoarding than those with education level below it (ORa=1.48, 95%CI=1.29-2.43). The healthcare seeking behaviour towards healthcare professional was found 82.00% (82/100) among children less than 10 years by their parents than the other age groups. Conclusion: Drug hoarding, sharing with modern drugs are commonly practiced in the community, so they should be avoided through educating general public on drug use so as to minimize the risk of using expired drugs, adverse events, accidental poisoning; under dose, inappropriate use; and combat antimicrobial resistance.