A study of prescribing in rural Sri Lanka.

A total of 2,344 prescriptions written for 800 outpatients attending eight peripheral health institutions in Sri Lanka were studied to establish the prescribing trends of Assistant Medical Practitioners (AMPs) and Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPS) who are the chief providers of health care in rural Sri Lanka. Bacterial infections accounted for 30.7% of the morbidity, with viral fever, influenza or the common cold for another 22.6%. Analgesics were the most commonly prescribed class of drugs with antimicrobials second (20% and 15.2% of all prescriptions respectively). Antimicrobials were prescribed for 42.4% of patients. Of all prescriptions 80.4% were judged appropriate (rational), and 98.6% were prescribed in correct dosage. Those considered unnecessary included mixtures, vitamins and antimicrobials. The therapeutic management of three cases of acute emergencies was satisfactory.