Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine prevalence, severity, mechanism and potential risk factors of drug interactions among paediatrics of tertiary care hospital. A prospective and observational study was carried out for 3 mo. A total of 56 patients were included in the study. A data collection form was prepared to collect patient’s details. The prescriptions of each patient were scrutinized by entering into Micromedex 3.0 software to determine potential drug-drug interactions. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize patients’ characteristics. Chi-square test was done using statistical package for the social sciences version 22.0 to determine significant association between potential risk factors and drug-drug interactions. A p≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. A total of 56 drug-drug interactions were found ranging from 1-10 interactions in 19 paediatric patients. The prevalence of drug interactions was found to be 33.93 %. The mean and standard deviation of drug interactions was 2.95±2.82. Half of the drug interactions were found to be moderately severe (28 interactions (50 %)) with iron and pantoprazole being the most common moderately severe drug interaction. The most common mechanism of drug interaction was found to be pharmacokinetic type of mechanism (29 interactions (51.79 %)). Based on statistical analysis of potential risk factors of drug interactions, it was determined that parameters like age groups (p=0.002) and number of drugs prescribed per patient (p=0.003) were found to be statistically significant. Clinical pharmacists play a primary role in scrutinizing the pharmacotherapy given to paediatric patients in order to control drug-drug interactions.