Prescription pattern of clinicians in private health facilities in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria

ObjectiveTo evaluate the prescription pattern of clinicians in private health care facilities in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria.MethodsOne thousand prescriptions from ten private health facilities in Kano were evaluated retrospectively using WHO prescribing indicators.ResultsAverage number of drugs per encounter in these health facilities was 3.20. Generic prescribing was low at 55.40% while encounters with antibiotic prescription were high at 43.80%. About 91.20% of prescribed drugs were listed in the national essential drug list while 83.30% of the drugs for treatment of common health problems were available in these facilities. Nearly 18% of encounters had at least one injection prescribed while antihypertensives, analgesics, antimalarials, vitamins and anxiolytics were prescribed in 11.80%, 61.30%, 30.20%, 21.50% and 12.30% of encounters, respectively.ConclusionsPolypharmacy, overuse of antibiotics and injections, and low rate of generic prescribing occur in private health facilities in Kano. Therefore, there is a need to draw attention to the educational intervention.