ANTIBIOTICS PRESCRIPTION PATTERN IN RURAL AREA OF BANGLADESH: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY IN DEBIDWAR UPAZILA OF COMILLA DISTRICT

Objective: The study was aimed to evaluate the antibiotic prescription pattern by physicians in the area of study. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out with a self-designed standard questionnaire by manual data collection over a three months period at the Debidwar Upazila of Comilla District. The data were collected by directly interviewing the participants. Microsoft Excel 2010 was used for the analysis of the collected data. Results: Out of 242 patients, 60.74% of patients were male, 39.26% of patients were female. Majority of the patients (50%) belonged to age group 9 to 20 and in terms of profession, 53.30% were students. Among the previous disease history, hypertension (20.25%) was found at the dominant position. Common cold (28.95%) was the frequent reason for visiting doctor and ciprofloxacin was prescribed to 30.17% patients (Male: 21.90%, Female: 8.26%). Before prescribing anti-bacterial agents or any other agents, only 23.55% patients were recommended diagnostic tests and in 81.81% cases, physicians simply prescribed medicine by his/her own assumption and culture and sensitivity test was recommended and done for 18.18% patients. Conclusion: Prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics for common cold and diarrhea, prescribing antibiotics or medicine based on presumption was the clear indications of irrational antibiotics use and inappropriate prescription pattern