DISEASE PATTERN AND PRESCRIBING AT THE UNIVERSITY-OF-ZIMBABWE STUDENTS-HEALTH-SERVICE, 1987-1991

The trends in drug use, expenditure and disease pattern at the Univers ity of Zimbabwe students' health facility over a period of five years (1987-1991), were analysed retrospectively. The study also analysed th e use of the essential drugs concept and the drug situation in Zimbabw e. A total of 1 500 cases which were randomly selected were studied. T he total student population over this period was 44 030. Data collecti on sheets where utilised to extract information from patients' cards. Requisition order books and budgets for drugs arid medical appliances and student population statistical data were analysed. Males accounted for 75,7 pc of the cases and the average age at the time of the visit was 22,04 years. The percentage of cases involving married students w as 2,53 pc of which 94,74 pc were males. The total expenditure of drug s and medical appliances for the study period was $412 413,55 and most of the items were supplied by the Government Medical Stores. The most prevalent disease conditions were respiratory tract infections (35 pc ) and urinary tract infections (16,3 pc). The disease pattern differed from that at district, general and provincial hospitals. The total nu mber of drugs dispensed for the 1 500 students was 2 600, giving an av erage of 1,7 drugs per case. Analgesics were the most widely used drug s (28,5 pc), followed by anti-infectives (28,2 pc). The most popular a nalgesic used was paracetamol which accounted for 66,6 pc of the analg esics. Antibiotics accounted for 88,1 pc of the anti-infectives and 24 ,9 pc of the total number of drugs dispensed. The most popular type of anti-infectives were the penicillins which accounted for 29,6 pc of t he antibiotics. The most frequently used penicillin was phenoxymethyl- penicillin which accounted for 66,1 pc of the penicillin and 17,8 pc o f the anti-infectives. There is a need for health centres to rigorousl y keep records on requisition/order books, so that these can be of use to evaluators on improvement of drug utilisation at the student healt h centre and perhaps, other clinics.