Prescribing patterns of antibiotics outpatients received by pharmacies in Medan city, Indonesia in 2017

This study aimed to determine the patterns of antibiotic use from prescriptions of physicians received by pharmacies in Medan from January to March 2017.

This study was conducted in a cross-sectional method using direct observation of prescriptions received by 100 pharmacies in Medan city. The data obtained were analyzed descriptively and grouped based on the antibiotic names, antibiotic classes, type of drugs, dosage forms and prescriptions.

A total of 12,388 prescription sheets were obtained from 100 pharmacies in Medan during the study period in which 3,823 of the prescription sheets (30.96%) contained antibiotics. According to the data, 4,029 antibiotics were prescribed by physicians in which amoxicillin (20.63%) and cephalosporin groups (25.94%) as the most widely prescribed antibiotic and antibiotic class, respectively. A total of 1,923 antibiotics (47.73%) were prescribed with generic names and more than half of the antibiotics were prescribed in the dosage form of tablets (65.65%). This study also found that Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialists are medical doctors who prescribe antibiotics the most.

Based on the study results, it can be concluded that the frequency of antibiotic prescriptions is still quite high in which amoxicillin as the most commonly prescribed antibiotic. In addition, ENT specialists as the most frequent prescribers of antibiotics.