ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Understanding of existing antibacterial drug prescribing patterns is a pre-requisite for further investigation of potential determinants of irrational prescribing, if any, thereby looking for solutions would be easier. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to assess antibacterial prescription patterns of different health professionals working at general outpatient clinics of different health institutions. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1558 prescriptions of patient encounters, were collected from four clusters of prescribers randomly selected from 11 public and 15 private health institutions in Bahir Dar town and its environs, North West Ethiopia. RESULTS: A significant proportion of patient encounters were exposed to at least one antibacterial drug with percentage of encounters to whom antibacterial(s) prescribed was 64.5%. Multiple antibacterial drug exposure was minimal (7.8%) with a maximum of 3 antibacterial drugs per encounter. The study showed that patients at pediatric age group were more likely to receive an antibacterial drug than adult counter parts (70.3% vs 62.8%, p = 0.038, OR = 1.33). On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences in the antibacterial exposure patterns of patients seen by prescribers of shorter pre-service training (health assistants and nurses) and those with longer duration (health officers and general practitioners) and also between patients seen at public and private health institutions. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that a significant proportion of patient encounters were exposed to antibacterial drugs. The actual determinants of the existing patterns should be further investigated in order to arrive at clear and feasible strategies to promote rational antibacterial drug prescribing practices.
