Drug Related Problems and Contributing Factors Among Adult Ambulatory Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases at Gebretsadik Shawo General Hospital, Bonga, South west Ethiopia

The identification of drug related problems is the focus of the assessment and the last decision made in that step of the patient care process. Although drug therapy problem identification is technically part of the assessment process, it represents the truly unique contribution made by pharmaceutical care practitioners. It is also a common scenario in chronic non communicable diseases, like cardiovascular diseases. The objective of the research was to determine the prevalence of drug therapy problems among adult ambulatory patients with cardiovascular diseases in Gebretsadik Shawo General Hospital (GSGH). Hospital based prospective cross sectional study design was employed. 130 adult patients with cardiovascular disease who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included. The principal investigator was involved in collecting the data. The data was analyzed manually using scientific calculator. A total of 163 DRPs were identified with the mean number of 1.5±0.8. While the DRP per patient was 1.08±0.75.Most of the patients (108, 72%) had drug related problem, of which drug indication related problems constituted the highest part 64(39.26%). Followed by non compliance to drugs 46(28.22 %), drug safety (32, 19.63%) and drug effectiveness (21, 12.89%) related issues. Key words: Drug related problems, ambulatory, cardiovascular diseases, Ethiopi