Drug Therapy Problems and Predictors Among Patients Admitted to Medical Wards of Dilla University Referral Hospital, South Ethiopia: A Case of Antimicrobials

Figures & data

Table 1 The Sociodemographic Characteristics of Patients Admitted to DURH

Variables	Categories	Frequency	Percentages
Sex	Male	118	51.53
	Female	111	48.47
Age	24 and less	21	9.17
	25–34	38	16.59
	35–44	49	21.40
	45–54	54	23.58
	55–64	44	19.22
	65 and above	23	10.04
Marital status	Single	53	23.14
	Married	156	68.12
	Widowed	16	6.99
	Divorced	4	1.75
Average monthly income (ETB)	1500 and less	138	60.26
	1501 to 5000	87	37.99
	More than 5000	4	1.75
The educational level of the patient	Illiterate (no formal education)	33	14.41
	Elementary	104	45.41
	Secondary	58	25.33
	College and above	34	14.85

Table 2 The Health Facility Factors Related to Antimicrobial Use, Among Patients Admitted to DURH

Variables	Categories	Frequency (N = 152)	Percentages
Laboratory results available within 48 hours	Yes	181	79.04
	No	48	20.96
The national guideline addresses the case	Yes	198	86.46
	No	31	13.54

Table 3 Patient Characteristics Related to Antimicrobials Use in DURH

Variables	Categories	Frequency (N = 229)	Percentages
Medication history at admission	Yes	61	26.64
	No	168	73.36
Number of comorbidities	None	53	23.15
	One	87	37.99
	Two	59	25.76
	Three	21	9.17
	Four and above	9	3.93
Total drugs used	3 and less	59	25.76
	4–6	119	51.97
	7 and above	51	22.27
Total hospital stay in days	7 and less	71	31.00
	8–14	133	58.08
	15–21	19	8.30
	22 and above	6	2.62

Table 4 Types of Antimicrobial Use Problems Identified in DURH

Variables	Total Incidents	Patients Experienced (N)	Prevalence (N %)
Actual ADRs	9	7	3.06
Dosage too high	24	19	8.30
Dosage too low	31	22	9.61
Ineffective antimicrobial/s	8	8	3.49
Needs additional antimicrobial/s	39	31	13.54
Noncompliance	87	68	29.69
Unnecessary antimicrobial/s	18	17	7.42
Total antimicrobial use problems	216	162	70.74

Table 5 The Incidence of Antimicrobial Use Problems in DURH

Category	Frequency (N)	Percentages (N% Out of 229)
Problems per Admission
None	67	29.26
One	116	50.66
Two	41	17.90
Three and above	5	2.18
Incidences of total antimicrobial use problems	Incidences (N)	Incidence density
Problems per patient	216 problems/229 patients	0.94-problems-per-patient
Problems per order	216 problems/338 orders.	0.64-problems-per-order
Problems per person-days	216 problems/2592 person-days	0.083 problems/person-days

Table 6 Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis for the Predictors of Antimicrobial Use Problems Among Patients Admitted to Medical Wards of DURH

Variables	Drug Therapy Problem		AOR [95% CI]	P-value
	Yes	No
Total drugs prescribed
3 and less	27 (16.67)	36 (53.73)	1.00
4–6	81 (50.00)	26 (38.81)	4.024 [2.020–8.017]	0.00
7 and above	54 (33.33)	5 (7.46)	13.516 [4.678–39.051]	0.00
Laboratory results available within 48 hours
Yes	120 (74.07)	61 (91.04)	1.00
No	42 (25.93)	6 (8.96)	3.383 [1.285–8.907]	0.014
The national guideline addresses the case
Yes	135 (83.33)	63 (94.03)	1.00
No	27 (16.67)	4 (5.97)	3.328 [1.015–10.909]	0.047