A Study on Drug Utilization of Oral Hypoglycemic Agents in Type-2 Diabetic Patients

Objective: To evaluate drug utilization pattern of oral hypoglycemic agents in Type-2 diabetic outpatients. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was carried out in 202 out patients for a period of 9 months in a tertiary care hospital. Patients treated with oral hypoglycemic agents were used for the study. The demographic data, disease data and utilization of different classes of oral hypoglycemic agents as well as individual drugs were analyzed. Results: The study found that 51.98% patients were males. The greatest number of patients(38.61%) were in the age group of 51-60 years. Sulfonylurea and biguanide combination (57.09%) was the most common class of drug used among the various oral antidiabetics prescribed. The average number of drugs per prescription was 4 and the average number of antidiabetic drugs per prescription was 1.4. Average cost of oral hypoglycemic agents per prescription for 1 month was found to be INR 275.35. Conclusion: Glimepiride and metformin combination drugs were the most commonly used drugs. Overall polypharmacy was high even though polypharmacy among antidiabetic drugs were low. The cost of drugs per prescription was found to be very high.