Pharmacoeconomics of allergic rhinitis drugs treatment in tertiary care hospital

Background: Allergic rhinitis also called hay fever; it is a very common in India. Harmless exposing substances cause an allergic reaction. Allergic rhinitis is of the two types, one is the seasonal occurred with the change of seasons, second is the perennial means any time during the year.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study to determine the cost analysis allergic rhinitis drugs used in treatment of ENT OPD in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai. The patients were interviewed; prescriptions were analyzed number of medicines prescribed.Results: Incidence of polypharmacy two drugs per prescriptions were prescribed 140 and three drugs per prescriptions 60. In the total number of 200 prescriptions, the cost of 43 prescriptions were in between 251-300 Indian rupees and 18 prescriptions were 301-350 Indian rupees. Patient knowledge about the drug use in this study, out of 200 pts 37% of allergic rhinitis patients knew the correct dosage of the prescribed drugs while 63% were not aware.Conclusions: Majority of the participants drugs were prescribed two to three drugs, per prescription cost was high because all the drugs prescribed by brand name and no drugs were prescribed by generic name. Improvement in knowledge about generic medicines is important factor to prefer generic medicine. Reduction in cost of drug will improve compliance.