RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Rational medical prescription is a concern for the health systems and policies of African countries. The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of medicines in children aged 0 to 5 years receiving free care. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study considering the use of medicines in 20 randomly selected health facilities level 1 in Ouagadougou. The reference of the World Health Organization and of the International Network for the Rational Use of Drugs (WHO/INRUD) was used to analyze data. Descriptive statistics were used as the average and standard deviation. Differences were measured using ANOVA test. RESULTS: In total, 1.206 prescriptions were reviewed between April 2016 and March 2017. The number of medicines issued on prescription was 2.9, the percentage of generic medicines prescribed was 88.7% and 97.7% of medicines prescribed were registered on the National List of Essential Medicines. The percentage of consultations during which antibiotics were prescribed was 83.2%, and 9.3% of prescriptions contained at least one injectable product. CONCLUSION: Irrational prescription is mainly relates to the use of antibiotics. Essential alertness should be given to the treatment of children less than 5 years to avoid an excessive consumption of medicines and the emergence of antibiotic resistance.