Adverse drug reactions in patients admitted on internal medicine wards in a district and regional hospital in Uganda.

INTRODUCTION The burden of both community and hospital acquired adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are some of the important issues in pharmacotherapy. At the time of this study there was very scanty literature in this area from Africa. OBJECTIVE This study was done to determine the frequency and characteristics of ADRs in patients admitted on medical wards in public hospitals. METHODS This was a longitudinal observational study on 728 adult patients on medical wards in one regional and one district hospitals. Community and hospital acquired ADRs were assessed. RESULTS Thirty three patients (4.5%) were admitted with suspected ADR, and an ADR was the reason for hospitalization in 1.5%. Most ADRs were due to antiparasitic products, mainly quinine (61%). Community acquired ADRs prolonged hospital stay, 5.6 days vs 4.0 days (p-value < 0.001). During hospitalization ADRs occurred in 49.5% of the patients. Antiparasitic products, predominantly quinine, were the commonest drugs class associated with ADRs (85.9%). Hospital acquired ADRs did not affect hospital stay, 4.2 days vs 3.9 (p-value 0.129). CONCLUSION ADRs are an important cause of morbidity in patients, both in the community and in hospitals, and the majority are associated with the commonly used drugs.