COMPARISON OF OF DRUG UTILIZATION IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE CLINICS IN TANZANIA

A study was carried out in 20 public and 20 private out patient clinic s (dispensaries) in oar es Salaam. At least 30 prescriptions were coll ected from each clinic, A total of 1200 were collected for analysis. P rescribing indicators from the WHO/DAP ''how to investigate drugs in h ealth facilities'' were used. The average number of drugs per prescrip tion in public clinics was 2.2 compared to 2.5 in private ones (p>0.05 ). The percentage generics was 51.7 in public clinics against 47.7 in private (p>0.05). On the other hand the percentage of antibiotics was 12.3 in public against 19.7 in private (p<0.05) whereas injections per centage was 9.6 in public against 12.7 in private clinics (p<0.05), Th e results suggest a need for intervention to curb the irrational use o f antibiotics and injections in private clinics.