Inappropriateness of medication prescriptions about chronic kidney disease patients without dialysis therapy in a Chinese tertiary teaching hospital

BACKGROUND With the increasing incidence rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD), inappropriate use of medicine in CKD patients is an important issue, as it may cause adverse effects in patients and progression to chronic renal failure. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of inappropriate medicine use among CKD patients. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 1 to December 1, 2014 in a Chinese teaching tertiary hospital. All medication prescriptions for CKD patients with serum creatinine level above normal value were enrolled. The prescriptions, including unreasonable dosage, contraindicated, and cautiously used medicines in CKD patients, were evaluated and the related medications were also analyzed and classified. RESULTS Two hundred and two patients were included, and a total of 1,733 lines of medication prescriptions were evaluated. The prevalence of inappropriate medication prescriptions in CKD patients was 15.18%, of which, unreasonable dosage (n=56), contraindicated (n=46), and cautiously used medicines (n=161) accounted for 3.23%, 2.65%, and 9.29%, respectively. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient implied that there was a significant correlation between the severity of renal insufficiency and frequency of inappropriate medication prescriptions (P=0.02, r=0.056). Among the inappropriate medication prescriptions, nutraceutical and electrolytes (n=65, 24.71%), cardiovascular drugs (n=61, 23.19%), and antimicrobial drugs (n=55, 20.91%) represented the top three medicine categories in CKD patients. CONCLUSION The study confirmed that inappropriate medication prescriptions were prevalent in CKD patients. Improving the quality of medication prescriptions in CKD patients is necessary.