Kehinde A Ganiyu1, 2
,
Chukwuma M Johnson1,
Patrick O Erah2,
For correspondence:- Kehinde Ganiyu Email: pharmkenny@gmail.com Tel: +2347031380705
Published: 11 December 2019
Citation: Ganiyu KA, Johnson CM, Erah PO, Drug prescribing and health-related quality of life among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at two health facilities in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. J Sci Pract Pharm 2019; 6(1):287-293 doi: 10.47227/jsppharm.v6i1.1
© 2019 The author(s).
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. .
Purpose: To study drug prescribing and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among pregnant women who attended antenatal clinics at Amassoma General Hospital and Amassoma Comprehensive Health Center in Bayelsa State from January to April, 2018. Methods: Pertinent patients’ (n=152) data evaluated included diseases presented, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP), including medications prescribed. Also, patients’ HRQoL data incorporating both physical and mental components were assessed using Short Form-12v2 questionnaire. All data generated were analyzed as appropriate and mean values for HRQoL data described in relation to the mid-point norm, 50±10. Results: Pains, malaria, and cough/catarrh were treated in 45 (41.7%), 15 (13.9%), and 13 (12.0%) of the pregnant women, respectively among other conditions. Proportions of the subjects with normal SBP and DBP were 145 (95.4%) and 137 (90.1%). In all, 149 (98.0%) of the women were prescribed routine medications required in pregnancy comprising folic acid, ferrous, and vitamin C, although 29 (24.0%) of those (n = 121) who were eligible for intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for malaria in pregnancy did not receive the therapy. Analgesics, tetanus toxoid, and artemisinin-based combination therapy were widely prescribed for management of pains, prevention of tetanus, and treatment of malarial infection, respectively. On the average, the state of pregnancy impacted both physical (47.56±6.92) and mental (46.88±8.50) health states among the women comparably (p>0.05), and substantial proportion (38.2%) of the cohort were at risk of screening positive for first stage depression. Conclusion: Pains, malaria, and cough/catarrh were the most encountered conditions, while analgesics, tetanus toxoid, and artemisinin-based combinations were the majorly prescribed medications among the pregnant women. Also, virtually all of the women received routine medications required in pregnancy. On the average, their physical and mental health statuses were impacted similarly.
