Abstract
BACKGROUND: Despite medicines are a major contributor to the health and well-being of the community, irrational use of medicines is being a serious public health crisis with significant harmful implications for patients, healthcare systems, and communities as a whole. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed at evaluating the rational use of medicine using the World Health Organization/Network of Rational Use of Drugs (WHO/INRUD) core drug use indicators at Teda and Azezo health centers of Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1200 prescription papers retrospectively, and 60 patients prospectively at two health centers of Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia from May 01/2019 to April 30/2020. The data were collected using a standard data collection checklist. Data were analyzed using SPSS(®) version 24. The data were analyzed descriptively by using mean, frequency, and proportion. RESULTS: Prescribing indicators: From a total of 2595 prescribed medicines, 94% of them were prescribed by generic name; percent encounters with injection was 9.5±0.28%, percent encounters with antibiotics was 73.85±0.35%, and 100% of medicines were prescribed from the essential medicine list of Ethiopia. Patient care indicators: Only 16.7% of the patients knew the correct dosage of their medications, and 17.5% of dispensed medicines were adequately labeled. From the prescribed medications, only 77.17% were actually dispensed. Average consultation and dispensing time were 5.35 minutes and 40.24 seconds, respectively. Facility-specific indicators: Only 83.5% of key medicines were available in the health centers. CONCLUSION: According to the WHO/INRUD core drug use indicators, rational medicine use is not achieved in terms of most components of the prescribing, patient care, and facility-specific indicators. Therefore, both health centers should work towards promoting the rational use of medicines.