Research Article

Children are more vulnerable to various adverse events related to drugs and the poor understanding of instructions on prescription by the patient or caretakers were likely to cause medication error and less effective treatment. To compare the drug prescribing patterns of pediatricians in an outpatient department and to access the understanding of instructions on prescription by the patients or caretakers after consultation with physicians. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of six months. 863 prescriptions written by the consultants (Professor/Asst. Professor/Post Graduate trainee) were collected and analyzed for the patterns and the patients were subjected to analysis for their understanding of instructions on prescription provided by the consultants by using a semi-scientific scale. Out of 863 prescriptions 76 were written by Professors, 229 by Asst. professors, 558 by Postgraduate trainees. On an average each consultant (professor/Asst.professor/post graduate trainee) prescribed 2.07 (Mean±SD 2.07±0.9) drugs per prescription suggesting there were no discernible difference between the prescribing behaviors of physicians in the pediatric unit. Patients or caretakers understanding of instructions on prescription provided by the consultants were ranged from 23.9% for the well understood, 58% for the moderately understood, 18.1% for the poorly understood. The study provides important insights in to the drug use patterns of pediatricians and helped to identify significant problem involved in knowledge gap of patients or caretakers understanding of instructions on prescription provided by the consultants.