A CROSS-SECTIONAL PHARMACOVIGILANCE STUDY ON ADVERSE DRUG REACTION IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify and report the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) which are occurring in pediatric and medicine departments in a tertiary care hospital at Vadodara. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 6 months in-patient at a tertiary care teaching hospital. We enrolled the patients based on inclusion criteria and data was analyzed with the help of MS excel 7 and Graph pad Prism. Further, the assessments of type, severity, and preventability of reported ADRs were done using Wills and Brown classification, modified Schumock and Thornton severity scale, modified Hartwig and Siegel preventability scale. Results: Data were collected from a total of two hundred patients of which twenty-six (13%) patients were affected with ADRs. Among twenty-six patients, females (64%) were more affected with ADRs when compared to males (36%). According to the department, most ADRs were observed in the medicine ward than in the pediatric. The highest number of ADRs was associated with antibiotics (46.1%). Based on the type of ADRs, Type B ADRs (77%) were more observed followed by Type A (7%) and Type C (8%). Conclusions: The information obtained from our study will help clinical pharmacists and healthcare professionals to take precautions in the future and adopt certain measures for preventing the ADRs and hence help in promoting safer and rational drug use in institutions and improving the quality of patient care.

An evaluation of the appropriateness of prescribing and frailty in elderly patients using STOPP criteria and Frailty Index in tertiary care teaching hospital

People above 65 years of age would amount to 10.7% of total population of India by 2021. India has acquired the label of ‘an ageing nation’ with 7.7% of its population being more than 60 years old. Geriatric patients are exposed to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) thus strategies to improve quality of life and safety of prescribing is needed. One such explicit criteria tool is ‘Screening Tool of Older person’s Potentially inappropriate Prescriptions’ (STOPP) criteria. For older individuals, frailty plays a decisive role. Frailty assessment is useful for identification of risk stratifications to assist in clinical decision makings. Hence, this study is aimed to assess the percentage of PIM using STOPP criteria and correlation between PIMS and Frailty Index (FI) in elderly patients in our setting. An observational study was done in 60 patients in department of medicine at tertiary care teaching hospital. Demographic details, diagnosis and current medications were recorded in Microsoft excel 2016. PIMs based on STOPP criteria version 2 and FI suggested by Searle et al. was calculated and analyzed. Spearman rank correlation test was used to check the correlation between FI and PIM. Out of 60 prescriptions, 21 prescriptions with PIM were found. Most common drugs prescribed as PIM were Aspirin, calcium, ceftriaxone, multivitamin B complex and furosemide. FI was analyzed by using 34 variables. Value of FI was between 0.03 to 0.17. Spearman Rank correlation test showed direct low degree of significant correlation between FI and PIM with correlation (r) value of 0.1602 (P value=0.02). 35% of prescriptions were having at least one PIM in our study and we found that there was direct association between FI and PIM which will help us to reduce potential medication errors, drug interactions and adverse reactions.