Abstract

Dinka Dugassa*, Ginenus Fekadu, Chaltu Hinkossa, Habte Gebeyehu and Firomsa Bekele

ABSTRACT

Back ground: Pregnancy is a special physiological condition where the treatment needs a special concern. It is important to treat the mother whenever needed while protecting the unborn from any side effects to the greatest possible extent. Pharmacotherapy during pregnancy is very challenging. Because, only a few medicines have been specifically tested for safety and efficacy Objective: To evaluate the pattern of prescribed only drugs and their risk categories during pregnancy in Nekemte Referral Hospital, Oromia Region, Ethiopia Method: A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing medical case files of 338 pregnant women, encountered with at least one drug, from 1876 pregnant women attending antenatal clinics of Nekemte Referral hospital, Oromia region, Ethiopia from January 09/ 2014 to June 02/ 2015. .The prescription pattern was assessed as perspectives of WHO core drug use indicators, and the United States Food and Drug Administration fetal harm classification, in lines with respective trimester. All drugs used during the first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy were further classified into category-A, category-B, category-C, category-D and category-X, according to the classification for drug use during pregnancy, introduced by FDA. Results: From 77.22% of pregnant women in this study are between age 20 to 35 years, 18.93% are greater than 35 years of age and 3.85% are under 20 years. 43% are second gravidae 32%multi gravidae 23.08% primigravidae and 2.07% gravidae is not indicated. 80.47% are visited ANC in their first trimester. GIT disorder accounts for 31.73% 38.49% and 47.66% in first, second and third respectively and totally account for 36.62% from all medical conditions.UTI is the second most (13.64%). Category A drugs accounts for 20.83% category, category B (26.34%), category C (24.34%) category C/D (9.65%), category D (9.43%) category X (1.09%) average drug per prescription is 1.41. Percentage of encounter with antibiotics is 31.8% percentage of encounter with injection is 19.30%. Percentage of drug prescribed with generic name is 94.08%. Conclusion and recommendation: Approximately half of the pregnant women utilized drugs from FDA category C, D and X which are thought to cause fetal harm, hence the use should be minimized.