Antibiotic-prescribing patterns in outpatient departments from a tertiary care hospital in Manipur using WHO AWaRe classification.

Background & objectives One of the major consequences of irrational drug use in treating infection is antibiotic resistance. World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) classification to promote the rational use of antibiotics. This study aims to assess the antibiotic-prescribing patterns in outpatient departments from a tertiary care hospital. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on the prescriptions collected from outpatient departments of a tertiary care hospital in Manipur from June to July 2024. Prescriptions containing at least one antibiotic were analysed. The prescribed antibiotics were classified using the WHO AWaRe 2023 tool. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS V 26.0 and presented as descriptive statistics. Results Among the 1,339 prescriptions, 1,451 antibiotics were prescribed: 1,237 (85.2%) prescriptions included only one antibiotic, while 102 (14.8%) prescriptions contained two or more antibiotics. According to WHO AWaRe classifications, 38 per cent of the antibiotics were in the Access group, 37 per cent in the Watch group, one per cent in the Reserve group, and 24 per cent in the Not Recommended group. Only 26.3 per cent of the antibiotics were prescribed by their generic names, while 74 per cent were on the WHO essential medicines list. Interpretation & conclusions The antibiotic prescriptions from the Access group were below the WHO target of 60 per cent, and nearly a quarter involved non-recommended antibiotics.