Proton pump inhibitors - over-prescribed in a rural community?

Objectives: there are specific licensed indications for the use of proton pump inhibitors (ppis). however it is over-prescribed globally. we performed a study to find out the uses and misuses of this expensive drug in our rural and financially poor population.methodology: prospective survey of patients successively admitted in medical and surgical wards of a teaching hospital in rural setting.results: two hundred fifty successively admitted patients over a month were interviewed. of them 144 (58%) were females. mean age was 42 years (range = 10 - 100 years). ninety (36%) were using ppis for which there was a licensed clinical indication in 44 (49%), whereas 46 (51%) had no definite indications. fifty three patients (59%) who were taking ppis were either self prescribing or were prescribed by an unqualified medical practitioner. of these, 34 (64%) did not appear to have a valid indication. of the remaining, 15 patients were prescribed ppi by a specialist, and 22 by a qualified general practitioner.conclusions: over half of patients (51%) in our setting are using ppis with no definite indication. over 2/3 (64%) of those were prescribed either by unqualified practitioner or bought over-the-counter, had no licensed indication