Prescribing pattern of celecoxib at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian, Kelantan

This retrospective study was planned and conducted in out-patient pharmacy of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) Kubang Kerian Kelantan during May 2016. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prescribing pattern of celecoxib for patients attending out-patient pharmacy of HUSM. The data was collected using online prescriptions which include patient’s age, gender, diagnosis, clinics they came from, frequency and period of treatment. A total of 1321 patients prescribed with celecoxib on January 2016 were included as the study subjects. Data generated from the online prescriptions were analyzed using SPSS software version 23. From this study, the result shows that the most prescribed indications of celecoxib were non-specific pain, followed by diabetes mellitus/ hypertension/ hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis (OA), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), injury/fracture, spondylosis, degenerative bone disease, acute post-operational pain and so on. Orthopaedic clinic 34.3%, accident & emergency clinic (A&E) 16.2% and Klinik Rawatan Keluarga 14% were the clinic that frequent prescribed celecoxib. The most common indications were nonspecific pain 18.5%, followed by diabetes mellitus/ hypertension/ hyperlipidemia 13.4%, osteoarthritis 12.8% and spondylosis 6.2%. Meanwhile, celecoxib 200 mg are the most prescribed compared to celecoxib 400 mg. It was found that age group does not relate to the dose given. Result on the frequency prescribed shows that age range was related with the frequency given. As a conclusion, this study revealed that the factor affecting prescribing pattern are patient’s age and diagnosis. Besides, the preferred daily dose for celecoxib is 400mg daily for both strengths except for patients with chronic pain can take it up to 800mg daily. As a conclusion, the study also concludes that patient who age 50-64 years old, diagnosed with pain are the most prescribed with celecoxib.