Trends in prescribing antihypertensive medications and lipid lowering therapy in type-2 diabetic patients in south Indian tertiary care hospital

Objectives: To evaluate trends in prescribing antihypertensive medications and lipid lowering therapy in type 2 diabetic patients Methods: The study was conducted as cross sectional observational study. The drug utilization data was collected for the years 2008 to 2010 after obtaining ethical committee approval. Collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical techniques. Results: As per the study criteria, data were collected from 773, 700 and 647 type 2 diabetic patients who were admitted during the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively in the medicine wards. Overall 56.53% diabetic patients had hypertension. Majority of them were males (61%), maximum number (36%) of diabetic hypertensive patients are in the age group of 55-64 years and about 39% patients had history of 1-5 years of hypertension. On evaluation of prescription pattern of antihypertensive medication in diabetic patients, most of the patients were on monotherapy and they are on calcium channel blockers (CCBs). Among CCBs amlodipine was commonly prescribed drug. About 30% of diabetic patients were on lipid lowering drugs. Conclusion: In diabetic patients with hypertension, calcium channel blockers were preferably used contrary to the guidelines which usually recommend ACE inhibitors or ARBs in these patients.