Afsaneh Mosleh, Najmolmolook Amini, Masumeh Sehati, Maryam Soroush, Houra Askarian,
Volume 23, Issue 2 (9-2025)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Rationalizing drug use is a priority in drug policy-making. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the evaluation of prescriptions using drug prescribing indicators. Improving prescribing patterns leads to closer alignment with WHO indicators and, consequently, promotes rational drug use.
Materials and Methods: In this study, ten prescriptions were randomly selected from each pharmacy on a monthly basis. WHO prescribing indicators, including the average number of drug items per prescription and the percentage of prescriptions containing at least one antibiotic, one injectable drug, and one injectable corticosteroid, were calculated. The sample size of the prescriptions evaluated over eight consecutive years, stratified by network/center, was 4,800 in Shahr-e Rey, 14,520 in Eslamshahr, and 5,880 in the South Tehran Health Center.
Results: The average number of drug items per prescription ranged from a minimum of 2.5 to a maximum of 3.99, showing a considerable difference from the WHO-recommended average of 1.7. The percentage of prescriptions containing at least one antibiotic fluctuated from 33.36% to 63.93%, which was substantially higher than the WHO-recommended average of 20.3%.
Additionally, the percentage of prescriptions containing at least one injectable drug ranged from 23.7% to 44.9%, differing markedly from the WHO-recommended average of 18.75%.
Conclusions: Rationalizing drug use should be prioritized in drug policies. Adopting a principled prescription-writing model based on WHO indicators can serve as an appropriate criterion for evaluating physicians’ prescriptions at the primary health care (PHC) level.
