Rationality of medicine use in rural areas of Gansu province

ObjectiveTo examine the status of medicine use prescribed by doctors in rural medical institutions and to provide references for regulating rational medicine use and improving medical service in rural areas of Gansu province.MethodsAll medicine prescriptions prescribed during 2014 were collected from 51 medical institutions in 27 villages,9 towns,and 3 counties selected with stratified cluster sampling in Gansu province.Then utilizations of antibiotics and hormone and the expense of the prescribed medicines were statistically analyzed.ResultsFor the medical institutions at grass-roots level,the prescription ratio of antibiotics for out-patients ranged between 35% and 64.58%.The rates of combined application of 4 or more antibiotics were 0.27%，0.19%,and 0.14% for all prescriptions for antibiotic treatment prescribed by doctors in maternal and child healthcare hospitals,township hospitals,and village clinics,respectively.Among all the prescriptions analyzed,30.73% were for intravenous medication and 3.07% for the application of hormone.The average usage rates were 80.5% and 80.6% for the essential medicines and the medicines included in the catalogues of medical insurance agencies and New Rural Cooperative Medical Care System.ConclusionThere are unreasonable use of antibiotics and improper administration of medicine in rural areas of Gansu province and the situation needs to be concerned.