Assessment of Drug Usage Pattern among Bronchial Asthma Patients in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Tamilnadu: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the small airways. Chronic inflammation often causes hyper responsiveness of airways with wheezing, breathing difficulty, cough and chest tightness. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to evaluate the drug usage pattern of anti-asthma drugs among asthma patients. METHODS: The present study was a prospective, observational cross-sectional study carried out among 422 outpatients being treated at the respiratory medicine department, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre. Data regarding the prescribing indicators and patient indicators were collected from the patients' prescription slips and entered in the preformed proforma. Prescribing indicators were taken into consideration in evaluating the rationality of prescriptions. RESULTS: In the present study, 49% of patients were between the age group of 20-40 years. Genderwise distribution showed 58.05% of males and 41.95% of females. A family history of asthma was seen in 68% of the study population. The present study reported smoking among 51% and tobacco chewing in 21% of the study population. Low economic strata were observed in 77.9% of the study population. According to asthma grading, 65.8% were in the mild intermittent, and 25% were in the mild persistent group. Patients were on ß2 agonists (35.4%) and corticosteroids (32%). The most commonly used fixed drug combination was a short-acting ß2 agonist with corticosteroid (40.5%). A total of 68% of drugs were used by the inhalational route and 29% by the oral route. CONCLUSION: The findings showed that, the most frequently prescribed drug was a short-acting ß2 agonist with corticosteroid in a fixed-dose combination via inhalational route.