Abstract

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY ON THE ASSESSMENT OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUG THERAPY BASED ON JNC VIII GUIDELINES IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL, DAVANGERE

Devi Dileep*, Josy Varghese, Jeeshna Jayan, Jeena M. Jacob, Upendra N. and J. S. Venkatesh

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Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a cardiovascular disease condition that if left untreated causes severe morbidity and mortality. So effective blood pressure control is necessary and people can achieve this by making lifestyle changes and taking antihypertensive drugs. To encourage ensible drug usage it is crucial to evaluate the antihypertensive drug prescribing pattern. Objectives: To evaluate the antihypertensive drug prescribing pattern for hypertensive patients and evaluating the adherence to the Joint National Committee-8 (JNC-8) guidelines for the management of hypertension. Methods: Prospective observational study was carried out for a period of six months in inpatient medicine department of Chigateri District Hospital. Results: A total of 130 patients were enrolled, the most prevalent comorbid condition was diabetes (n=30, 33.33%) followed by chronic kidney disease (25, 27.77%). While assessing the risk factors increased number of males (17%), overweight (15.4%), social habits like smoking (12.58%), increasing age (11.9%) was found to be the important risk factors for the development of hypertension. The pattern of drug prescription in hypertension shows that monotherapy was the prescribing trend with Calcium channel blocker (24.5%) followed by dual therapy with combination of Angiotensin receptor blocker + Diuretic. (n= 18, 46.15%). Also the study revealed the adherence to Joint National Committee 8 guidelines for the treatment of hypertension ranges between 70%-94%. Conclusion: From this study, the results suggest that prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs shows suboptimal adherence to the recommendation of Joint National Committee-8 guideline for the treatment of hypertension.

Keywords: Prescribing trend, Monotherapy, Dual therapy, Adherence.