Publication:

Drug utilisation evaluation in patients with osteoarthritis in tertiary care hospital

Background The principle aim of our study is to assess the prescribing pattern of drugs used in treatment of osteoarthritis patients.

Methods A prospective and empirical study was carried out at department of orthopaedics-Shadan teaching and general hospital, for 6 months.

Results During the study period, a total 120 patients were enrolled, of which 57% were females, 43% were males and common age group was ≥60 years. It was found that 56% of OA patient have history of trauma and 62% of obese individual contribute to occurrence of OA. It was found that subjects developed comorbidities like CV disorders which is 36%. It was found that 63% have OA for a duration of >2 years, 56% had no knowledge about their medications, 59% have co-morbidity, 61% have treatment complexity. NSAID’s, calcium, vitamin D3, glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate were the most frequently prescribed drugs in OA accounting for 50%. It was reported that 55% were adherent to OA medication, adherence to physical activity was 64%, adherence to weight loss was 62%.

Conclusions Our study manifest that majority of the patients had duration of >2 years of OA. The reasons for the uncontrolled pain was due to absence of awareness about osteoarthritis-related difficulties, drugs, low calcium diet, increased stress, obesity, and advanced age. Continuous health education, patient counselling, information about medication adherence and satisfaction at follow-ups is essential to avoid the problems.