Unnecessary hospitalisations and polypharmacy practices in Tajikistan: a health system evaluation for strengthening primary healthcare

BACKGROUND: Children and pregnant women require multiple contacts with the healthcare system. While most conditions can be managed by primary healthcare (PHC) providers, hospitalisations are common. This health system evaluation in Tajikistan quantifies unnecessary and unnecessarily prolonged hospitalisations and assesses antibiotic and polypharmacy practices. METHODS: Data were retrospectively collected from randomly selected medical records from 15 hospitals. Inclusion criteria were children 2–59 months of age with a primary diagnosis of acute respiratory infection or diarrhoea, or pregnant women with threatened preterm labour, threatened miscarriages, premature rupture of membranes or mild pre-eclampsia, hospitalised between January and September 2021. RESULTS: Among 440 children and 422 pregnant women, unnecessary hospitalisations accounted for 40.5% and 69.2% of hospitalisations, respectively, ranging from 0% to 92.7% across the hospitals. Among necessary hospitalisations, 63.0% and 39.2% were unnecessarily prolonged in children and women, respectively. Prior to admission, 36.8% of children had received antibiotics, in which more than half intramuscularly. During hospitalisation, 92.5% of children and 28.9% of women received antibiotics. Children and women received an average of 5 and 6.5 drugs, respectively; most were not indicated or with no evidence of benefits. CONCLUSIONS: The methodology is applicable across all health systems and can provide important insights on health service use and resource waste. Findings of this assessment in Tajikistan have led to evidence-based decisions and actions from stakeholders and policy makers with the goal of strengthening PHC and improving the management of common diseases in children and pregnant women.