Medication use among pregnant women at a secondary health institution: utilisation patterns and predictors of quantity

BACKGROUND: Despite the lack of adequate studies on the safety of drugs in pregnancy, surprisingly, available evidence shows that pregnant women still take large number of drugs. OBJECTIVES: The study aim was to determine drug utilization pattern and predictors of number of medications used by pregnant women. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey of 369 pregnant women attending a secondary health facility. Data were collected using interviewer-administered questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics using the Chi-Square test were carried out with level of significance set at p<0.05. RESULTS: Three hundred and sixty-nine women were interviewed. Their mean age was 27.7 years (SD± 4.78) and the mean number of pregnancies was 2.46 (SD± 1.34). On average, 2.62 medications were taken, with the lowest being 1 and the highest being 12 different medications during the course of pregnancy. Those who were on more than 2 medications were more likely to be older than 30 years, had lower education and with history of associated medical conditions. All participants were on one form of supplements or the other, nearly half had used antimalarials, 12.8%, 5.8% 2.4% were on antibiotics, anti-hypertensive and anti-retroviral medications respectively. All the medications prescribed were from category A, B, C, N, and none from category D and X. CONCLUSION: Varieties of medications were used during the course of pregnancy among this population, however, most of these drugs were still within safety profile.