A Prospective Study on Hospitalization due to Drug-related Problems in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Drug-related problem (DRP) is any undesirable event experienced by the patient, which is suspected to involve drug therapy and interferes with a desired patient outcome. Most of these DRPs are avoidable with little vigilant effort. DRP admissions need high attention as DRP-related admissions on an average accounted for 8.36%, of which 50% are avoidable. The aim of the study was to identify the risk factors associated with DRPs in tertiary care hospital.

One year prospective observational study was conducted in the departments of general medicine, dermatology, pediatrics, and gastroenterology of a tertiary care teaching hospital. A total of 148 cases, where a correlation between past medication history and current complaints was established, were included in the study. Exclusion criteria of the study were no correlation between past medication history and current complaints, social habits causing hospitalization, and herbal medication use history.

In this study, nonadherence (50.94%) and adverse drug reaction (ADR) (38.36%) were predominant among the identified DRPs. Children and geriatrics showed the higher incidence of nonadherence to the prescribed therapy. ADRs were the DRP with the higher incidence among adults followed by nonadherence to the prescribed therapy. Lack of knowledge about the disease, its complications, and possible adverse reactions with self-medication was identified to be the high incidence risk factor. Higher incidence of DRPs was observed in patients having a past medical history of cardiovascular system and central nervous system diseases, which require long-term management.

In this study, nonadherence to prescribed therapy was found to be the DRP causing hospitalization at a higher incidence. The most commonly involved risk factors were lack of knowledge about the disease, need of adherence to the therapy as prescribed, and outcomes of the treatment provided.