Utilization Study of Antihypertensives in a South Indian Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital and Adherence to Standard Treatment Guidelines

What is it about?

The WHO defines drug utilization studies as “the marketing, distribution, prescription and the use of drugs in a society, with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social and economic consequences.” Prescription pattern surveys are an important methodological instrument of drug utilization studies, which help provide an in‐depth insight into the disease pro le of patients and prescribing behavior of clinicians.

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Why is it important?

Hypertension represents an enormous global public health‐care challenge. e World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that 1.5 billion people globally are likely to su er from hypertension by 2025.[1] e overall prevalence of hypertension in India is estimated at 29%.[2] Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for 1.5 million deaths in India annually. Hypertension is linked to 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary event deaths.[3] Hypertension is ranked as the third most important risk factor for attributable disease burden in South Asia.[4] Hypertension is arguably the single most important risk factor for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal disease that can be modi ed by timely detection as well as decisive therapeutic intervention. The guidelines for the treatment of hypertension are put forward by the Joint National Committee (JNC) on detection, evaluation, and treatment of blood pressure. e Indian guidelines, endorsed by the cardiology Society of India, the hypertension Society of India, and the Indian College of Physicians, closely follow the JNC Guidelines (JNC6 and JNC7).[5,6] ese guidelines are updated from time to time, based on evidence emanating from basic and clinical research, and guide physicians to select the most appropriate antihypertensive agent in a patient. Pharmacoepidemiological studies such as drug utilization and prescription pattern studies are an important research tool by which the impact that such guidelines have on the selection of therapeutic agents can be assessed and analyzed. It has been observed that evidence‐based clinical research is not adequately incorporated into clinical practice,[7] which can in turn result in suboptimal patient health‐care practices.