A Study to Assess and Evaluate Prescribing Patterns of Antihypertensive Drugs in Medicine Ward of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital at Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Ballari, Karnataka

A prospective observational study was carried out for the period of six months in inpatient department of General Medicine ward of a tertiary care teaching hospital at Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences, Ballari, Karnataka.

Objective: To assess and evaluate Prescribing Patterns of Antihypertensive Drugs.

Results: A total of 200 subjects were covered during the study period. Out of 200 subjects, 88 were males (44%) and 112 were females (56%). Prevalence of hypertension was more in the age group of 60-79 years [(n=90), 45%]. The patients were categorized depending on the stages of hypertension that they met. 45 patients (22.50%) belonged to the pre-hypertension stage, 56 patients (28%) belonged to stage – 1, hypertension, and 99 patients (49.50%) belonged to stage – 2 hypertension. The results revealed that the maximum number of patients 92 underwent dual therapy, followed by 79 monotherapy, 27 triple therapy and 2 of the patients were treated with more than three drugs. The study showed that 39.5% were prescribed with a single antihypertensive agent, 46% with two, 13.5% with three and 1% with more than three agents.

Conclusion: Most of the prescriptions were rational, but further improvement is needed. Further studies focused on the rationale for the choice of drug based on demographic data, economic status, associated conditions and complications would give additional insights into prescribing patterns in hypertension in India.