Drug utilization patterns among elderly hospitalized patients on poly-pharmacy in Punjab, Pakistan.

Background: Reports from drug utilization reviews are important tools employed in the assessment of healthcare practices. The objective of this study was to evaluate drug utilization patterns among elderly hospitalized patients on poly-pharmacy regimens in Pakistan.

Methods: A descriptive, non-experimental, cross-sectional study was carried out from December 2015 to March 2016 in six tertiary-care hospitals in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

Tuberculosis deaths: are we measuring accurately?

Death among tuberculosis patients is one of the major reasons for non-attainment of 85% treatment success target set by World Health Organization. In this short paper, we evaluated whether the overall mortality rate in pulmonary tuberculosis is being affected by other comorbid conditions. All new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients (N =336), who started their treatment at the chest clinic of the Penang General Hospital, between March 2010 and February 2011, were followed-up until December 2011.