Retrospective analysis of prescribing pattern at Bayero University, Kano, old campus clinic

Drugs are substances used to treat or manage certain health problems. There is no health care system without drugs. The rational use of drugs is a worldwide concern. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prescription pattern for outpatients in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) old campus clinic. This is a retrospective study conducted using 600 prescriptions at outpatient unit in BUK old campus clinics between January 2021 and December 2021. The data was collected using data collection form, which consists of two sections, namely, demography of the patient and prescription information. The average number of drugs per encounter was 3.26. Antibiotic prescription was high (48.8%) while the drugs prescribed by generic name were 61.8% which is low compared to the WHO standard. Injection was prescribed in 25.8% of prescription encounters. In addition, 80.8% and 40.5% of the prescriptions hadanalgesic and antimalaria drugs respectively. Amoxicillin and paracetamol were the most prescribed antibiotic and analgesic respectively. There was inconsistency between the prescription pattern at BUK and the WHO guidelines as the values deviate from WHO references values.