Comparison of drug utilisation in public and private primary health care clinics in Tanzania

A study was carried out in 20 public and 20 private out patient clinics (dispensaries) in Dar es Salaam. At least 30 prescriptions were collected from each clinic. A total of 1200 were collected for analysis. Prescribing indicators from the WHO/DAP "how to investigate drugs in health facilities" were used. The average number of drugs per prescription 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 percentage was 9.6 in public against 12.7 in private clinics (p < 0.05). The results suggest a need for intervention to curb the irrational use of antibiotics and injections in private clinics.