Publication:

A cross-sectional study to assess the rationality of fixed dose combinations prescribed in geriatric patients in a tertiary care hospital

Background There is a growing concern about use of irrational fixed dose combinations (FDC) in geriatric patients which imposes unnecessary financial burden, increase the occurrence of adverse drug reactions, hospitalization and ultimately reducing the quality of life. The aim of our study is to assess prescription rate of irrational FDCs in geriatric patients in our hospital.

Methods A cross sectional observational study was carried out at M. S. Ramaiah hospital for a period of 2 months and the case records of patients aged ≥60 years visiting various departments were retrieved from medical record section. We reviewed their prescriptions and analysed the prescription rate of FDCs and their rationality was assessed by using WHO guidelines for FDCs. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. SPSS Version 20 was used for statistical analysis.

Results We studied case files of 361 geriatric patients who visited our hospital during our study period. Among them 212 (58.7%) were male and 149 (41.3%) were female patients. Prescription rate of FDCs in our study was 69.8%. A total of 82 FDCs were prescribed in our study. Among these 82 FDCs, 56 (68.3%) were irrational as per WHO guidelines. The commonly prescribed FDCs in our study were combination of anti-asthmatic drugs, multivitamin preparations, antihypertensive combinations, analgesics, and antimicrobial agents.

Conclusions The prescription rate of irrational FDCs is very high in our hospital. There is a need to educate physicians regarding consequences of use of such irrational FDCs.