Prescribed drugs in attendance sampling at basic health service in Blumenau

Abstract

Medicines constitute important part of available therapeutic resources and are often the option with better cost/benefit profile. The knowledge of the prescription pattern from a determined local allows better management of pharmaceutical assistance. The objective of this work was to list prescribed drugs in an attendance sample in the city of Blumenau, Santa Catarina. With this purpose 186 patients were interviewed in 17 health centers during a working day, using data classification according to WHO prescribing indicators. In this study 336 drugs were prescribed and the drug average per prescription was 1,8. Antibiotic prescription percentage was 12,5 and the percentage was 8,1 for injections. The most prevalent therapeutic subgroups were analgesics (14,3%), systemic antibiotics (12,5%) and anti-inflammatory (12,5%). The majority of these drugs was part of the municipal standardized medication list and national list of essential drugs - RENAME (82,4% and 57,7%, respectively). The amount of drugs per prescription and antibiotics prescription frequency were lower then those found in other researches. Besides, most of the prescribed drugs were part of those standards from the city. The adoption of essential drug lists and a continuing education are important tools for the rational use of medicines.