Antihypertensive drug utilization at health centres in a district of Istanbul.
OBJECTIVE
Since irrational use of antihypertensives has considerable clinical and economical consequences, this study was conducted to evaluate antihypertensive drug utilization in hypertension at seven State Health Centres in Istanbul.


METHODS
A total of 297 hypertensive patients who accepted to participate in the study were evaluated by a face-to-face questionnaire and a copy of their prescriptions were collected for prescription analysis.


RESULTS
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (31.7%), calcium channel blockers (28.8%), diuretics (16.2%), beta blockers (7.5%) and others (15.8%) have been prescribed. There were no statistically significant relation between prescribed antihypertensive drug groups and gender, age, and NSAIDs co-prescribing. The most frequent comorbidity in hypertensive patients was diabetes mellitus (10.4%) and calcium channel blockers (35.5%) have been prescribed to them as a first antihypertensive medication. Average cost per prescription was $42.7 +/- 38.1. According to the patients' self-reporting, the majority of them (85%) were prescribed without a physical examination. The physicians failed to write the prescriptions appropriately; only 5% of the scripts contained all information about the drug(s) and use instructions in full format.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study indicates that GPs working at primary healthcare centres were rational in terms of antihypertensive drug choice. However, they poorly applied rational pharmacotherapy principles such as (a) writing a "good" prescription which is easily readable by the pharmacist and the patient and that contains full essential information; (b) a medical examination of the patient to assess her/his current clinical condition; and (c) taking care of not prescribing drugs with potential interaction like antihypertensives and NSAIDs together.
Akici
Ahmet
A
Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, Marmara University School of Medicine, Haydarpaşa, Istanbul, 34668, Turkey.
Kalaça
Sibel
S
Uğurlu
Umit
U
Toklu
Hale Z
HZ
Oktay
Sule
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D016527:Drug Costs; D004347:Drug Interactions; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012737:Sex Factors; D014421:Turkey
D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents