Rational Use and Prescription of Drugs: A Review on WHO's 12 Strategies

Keyvanara M¹ (PhD), Safaeian L²(PhD), Karimi S³(PhD), Shojaiezadeh N⁴*(MSc Student)

¹ Social Determinates of Health Research Center, School of Management and Medical Information,

Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

² Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences,R & D Food and Drug Deputy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

³ Health Services Management, Health Management and Economic Research Center, School of Management and Medical Information, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

⁴ Health Services Management, Research Committee, Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Information, Isfahan University of Medical science, Isfahan, Iran

Original Article

Received:10 Jun 2015, Accepted:27 Sep 2015

Abstract

Introduction: During the past 10 years, drug budget have grown enormously from 500 million Dollars to 3 billion Dollars in Iran. Irrational drug prescription can cause additional costs on people/government and can waste the resources. Designing and implementing appropriate interventions to control drug prescription and usage can be effective in controlling the issue. This study was carried out to presenta framework for the most important reasons of the WHO's 12 strategies about irrational use and drug prescription.

Methods: In this review article, we have searched the Google, Google scholar, SID, Magiran, Irandoc, and the PubMed with the following keywords: WHO's Strategies, rational prescribing, rational drug use, and rational use of medicine. A total of 70 related articles published in the two last decades were retrieved. After excluding the unrelated articles, data of 43 articles were extracted and analyzed.

Results: According to this study, WHO's 12 strategies were classified in four educational, managerial, regulatory, and financial dimensions. Most studies had been focused on the educational and managerial strategies that seemed to be the most important reasons of irrational drug prescription.

Conclusion: The results of this study provided information on the WHO's strategies in different countries. The results can be used by the policymakers to consider different dimensions of rational use and prescription of drugs in planning appropriate programs.

Key words: rational use of drug, prescription, WHO strategies, Iran

Please cite this article as follows:

Keyvanara M, Safaeian L, Karimi S, Shojaiezadeh N.Rational Use and Prescription of Drugs: A review on WHO's 12 Strategies.Hakim Health Sys Res 2016; 18(4): 294- 305.