title: Prescribing practices of rural primary health care physicians in Uzbekistan.
abstract: Doctors prescribe medications for therapeutic indications and to meet patient expectations. Understanding the pattern of prescribing is a necessary precursor for any intervention and for improving prescribing practices. Using the WHO standard methodology, we investigated the prescribing practices of doctors in rural primary health care (PHC) clinics in the Ferghana region of Uzbekistan. Doctors in these clinics may have over-prescribed, prescribing 2.9 drugs per patient per encounter. Fifty-seven per cent of these were for injectable drugs, and 57% for antibiotics. Most prescriptions were for name brand (62%) rather than generic drugs.
authors.affiliation: USAID/ZdravPlus, John Snow Inc, Ferghana, Uzbekistan.
authors.forename: Melinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pavin
authors.forename: Talgat
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nurgozhin
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hafner
authors.forename: Farruh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yusufy
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laing
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016568:Drugs, Generic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014610:Uzbekistan
chemical_list: D016568:Drugs, Generic