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Objective: Antibiotics are currently the most commonly prescribed drugs in hospitals worldwide. However, excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics can lead to increased drug resistance. Rational use of antibiotics should be a priority of policy makers. Aim: To assess and evaluate the prescribing pattern and the current practice of antibiotics in hospitalized patients and to evaluate the safe usage of antibiotics.Materials and Methods: This study was an institutional-based cross-sectional prospective observational study carried out in four in-patient departments (Surgery, Medicine, Ent &Orthopedic ) in a tertiary care hospital between July 2023 and December 2023. Data was collected using a data abstraction format generated by World Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators.The enrolled patients were observed from admission till discharge. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25.0 of Statistical Software. Results: Out of 1600 patients admitted in the hospital, a total of 1300 antibiotics were prescribed for 815 (50.93, 95% CI 48.4-53.3 ) patients. The average (mean±SD) number of prescribed antibiotics per patient was found to be 2.53±1.47, with the highest value (four antibiotics) being observed in surgical ward for a mean±SD duration of 4.2±2.3 days, and the longest duration (7days) being observed in the medical ward. Ceftriaxone was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic in most wards, accounting for 12.80%. Ciprooxcin(13.80%) was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic in surgery ward as prophylaxis, whereas Moxioxcin (10.94%) was the commonest antibiotic prescribed on the medical ward, as community- acquired pneumonia (CAP) was a common reason for admission in the ward. Conclusion: This study shows that the prescribing pattern of antibiotics in the hospital deviates from and is noncompliant with the standard endorsed by WHO Prescribing Pattern . Establishing an antibiotic stewardship program, introducing antibiotic use based on culture and sensitivity tests, and developing institutional guidelines could all help to alleviate this problem. It was observed that the hospital physicians prescribed antibiotics more rationally with no banned drugs and less newer drugs. Rational prescribing of antibiotics would help avoid polypharmacy and prevent drug resistance.
Nabi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.