MEDICINES PRESCRIBING PATTERNS FOR THE TREATMENT OF COMMON DISEASES AT COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRES IN 3 DISTRICTS OF TIMOR-LESTE

Stanley Chindove, Antonio Ximenes, Nelson Martins

Problems with inappropriate use of medicines leading to antimicrobial resistance and increased healthcare costs are a major global concern. In Timor-Leste, concerns of inappropriate use of medicines at public health facilities are current among stakeholders in the health community. Therefore this descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective study investigated the pattern of medicine use at community health centres in 3 districts of Timor-Leste. 100 case records of outpatients with acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and malaria during a one year period (July 2010 to July 2011) were randomly sampled at 8 community health centres. Our findings show that the average number of medicines per encounter was slightly higher compared to a previous study at community health centres in Timor-Leste. However, extremely low usage of injections for outpatients was observed. Use of antibiotics among patients with upper respiratory infections and diarrhoea was considerably high. Antibiotics, analgesics, vitamins and antihistamines were commonly prescribed medicine categories. There was moderate availability of key medicines.