A Prospective Study of Utilization Pattern of Antihyperglycemic Agents,Cost Analysis and Adherence to Current Standard Treatment Guidelinesin a Tertiary Care Hospital in North East India

Introduction: Diabetes has emerged as one of the fastest growing global health emergencies of the 21stcentury. The real burden of diabetes is due to its micro and macrovascular complication which lead to increasedmorbidity and mortality. Judicious use of antidiabetic drugs by adhering to guidelines will decrease thecomplication and cost of drug therapy.Aims and Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate drug utilization pattern of antihyperglycemicagents in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Materials and Method: A single centric cross sectional prospective observational study was conducted over aperiod of 6 months (May 2017 to October 2017) in the diabetic clinic of Assam Medical College and Hospital(AMCH), Dibrugarh, Assam. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Continuous data wereexpressed as mean percentage and nominal data were expressed as frequency and percentages.Results: In this study a total of 207 prescriptions were analyzed and was observed that Metformin was the mostcommon drug prescribed both as monotherapy (53.7%) and in combination with Gliclazide (50%). Amlodipine(16.9%) was the most common non-diabetic drug prescribed in our patients. Average number of drugs perprescription was 4.06, while average number of antihyperglycemic agents per prescription was 1.92. Averagecost of antihyperglycemic agents per prescription was under Rs 100/month (55.5 %) with 42.45 % of drugsprescribed as generic drugs.Conclusion: Metformin being the most commonly prescribed antihyperglycemic drug in T2DM should beavailable in sufficient quantities in health care system. Polytherapy is given adequately for the various macroand microvascular complications due to long standing diabetes mellitus. Generic drugs should be used to reducethe cost of treatment.