A cross-sectional study on current prescription trends and errors in outpatient department of a Bangladeshi secondary care district hospital.

Context: The rational prescription leads to a healthy and good-quality life of a patient. Irrational, inappropriate, and unnecessary prescriptions are major therapeutic issues in Bangladesh, which can cause severe consequences. Aim: This cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the prescription patterns and errors as well as to review the most frequently prescribed drug classes among outpatients at a secondary hospital in Pabna, a district of Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 400 prescriptions were reviewed from March 2019 to May 2019. In this study, statistical data analysis was implemented by IBM SPSS Statistics V22 and data revealed in frequencies, mean, and percentage. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to show the correlation between bivariate coded variables. Results: The results revealed that majority of the prescription were prescribed for females (73.5%) where proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), analgesics, vitamins, and single antibiotics were most frequently prescribed medicine for the female patients compared to male patients. Almost half of the collected prescription contained four medicines (47%). Maximum number of prescriptions contained two (30.5%) essential drugs and among 1402 medicines of 400 prescriptions, antiulcerants were most frequently prescribed medicine (23.32%) where esomeprazole was highly prescribed generic drug (44.75%). Moreover, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient suggested that PPIs and analgesics were frequently prescribed medicines at a time for the patients (0.182). According to the age group, the study also got some significant variations in prescribing pattern. However, most common prescription errors were prescriber's name not mentioned (100%), diagnosis not mentioned (96.75%), dose not indicated (15.41%), and wrong drug name (0.36%). Conclusion: Findings of the current study represent the existing prescribing trends of different therapeutic classes of drugs and common prescription errors in a secondary health facility of Bangladesh. From this study, it is observed that physicians prescribed rationally in some cases but need to ensure rationality in all prescriptions. Continuous monitoring of drug use, development of prescribing guidelines, and training are recommended to ensure and implement good-quality prescribing practices for promoting the rational and cost-effective use of drugs.

Evaluation of sleep quality, psychological states and subsequent self-medication practice among the Bangladeshi population during Covid-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Due to the extended lockdown imposed for SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, many people have experienced problematic sleep patterns and associated health issues worldwide. This study was conducted to assess the sleep quality and psychological states of the Bangladeshi population during the COVID-19 pandemic, respondent's behavioral traits as well as psychological or sleep-related problems induced self-medication practice among the respondents, along with the probability of development of drug dependency. METHODS: The survey was conducted among 2941 respondents from 25th November 2020 to 4th December 2020 where the responses were analyzed by SPSS V22. RESULTS: 10-29.5% experienced a significant degree of sleep problems whereas some experienced severe anxiety and depression. The associations between the behavioral traits and parameters concerning sleep quality, anxiety and depression showed 5% level of significance in all cases. Self-medication practice of sleep aids during this pandemic was reported by 7.14% of the respondents, with a greater percentage belonging to the female or senior age group. Tendency to repeatedly self-medication was observed in 18.86% of this self-medicating populace, and a greater number of male (10.26%) respondents displayed such tendency as opposed to their female (8.6%) equivalents. However, 48.10% of the respondents reported perceptions of improved physical and/or psychological health following self-medication, and this trait was predominant in men (52.14%). CONCLUSION: Results showed a significant number of Bangladeshi populaces were suffering from psychological issues during this COVID-19 which also influenced a certain number of people towards self-medication practice where signs of drug dependency were observed in a significant number of respondents.

Risk perception and information-seeking behavior during emergency: An exploratory study on COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.

With the fluctuating condition of the pandemic, people's perception of COVID-19 is also inconstant. If people perceive a low risk of any health emergency or any other crisis, they won't look for proper information to change their attitude, which might increase their risk. Through the use of two different theories and a mixed-method approach, this study attempted to understand the current perception about COVID-19 and the relationship between risk perception and information-seeking behavior. Survey and in-depth key informant interviews were used as tools for data collection. The results indicated that COVID-19 related risk perception changes following people's demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Also, the study found out a relationship of variation in information-seeking behavior on the basis of factors like demographic characteristics, past experience of any emergency, salience, and belief. Results specified that people seek information differently when they perceive a risk to be of higher order. The study summarized that the information sought about any risk could also amplify or reduce the level of perceived risk. In the end, the study concluded that if people do not perceive the risk of any emergency and don't seek proper information, raising awareness about a pandemic like COVID-19 and managing the emergency will be challenging.