Essential Medication Prescription and Associated Maternal Characteristic among Hospitalized Pregnant Women: A Retrospective Population Based Study

Objective: There are limitations of Food and Drug Administration pregnancy risk classification system and pregnancy information, surplus resources are essential to evaluate the safety and to assess the risk-benefit ratio of medication use in pregnancy. The aim of the study is to characterize medication use in hospitalized pregnant women during antenatal period and correlate maternal characteristics in this population. Methods: It is a retrospective cross-sectional survey. Data of hospitalized pregnant women was collected. The FDA pregnancy risk classification was categorized for the prescribed drugs. Descriptive analysis was performed for demographic and maternal characteristics. Pearson Chi-square Fisher’s exact tests are used to observe the association between the independent variables and outcome variables. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs were also estimated. Each outcome variables whose levels were with a P (< 0.05) was significant. Results: Among 505 pregnant women, 75.24% were hospitalized during third trimester, and 3.17% were having comorbid conditions. 60.59% of the pregnant women received more than or equal to five drugs. 39.86% are exposed to FDA C, D or X categories of drugs during pregnancy. Category B drugs are frequently prescribed. Women whose parity is ≥ 2, length of hospital stay and with at least five medications prescribed are the factors associated to prescription of FDA C, D or X drugs during pregnancy. Conclusion: There was considerable use of medicines among the pregnant women as per the essential drug list complying fully with World Health Organization recommendations by using their international non-proprietary names.