Abstract:

Background: Corticosteroids are potent anti-inflammatory and immune suppression used to manage severe uncontrolled allergic reactions. Prolonged use of corticosteroids for more than 2 weeks has been found to produce undesired events e.g. elevated threat of infections and weight gain. This research determines the prevalence and pattern of corticosteroid use among paediatric patients attending Bugando Medical Centre.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary analysis from the medical files of the paediatric patients who attended Bugando Medical Centre from January 2018 to December 2022. The results were summarized in terms of percentages and frequency given in tables and figures.

Results/Discussions: 1000 paediatric patients were recruited for the study. Steroids were prescribed for various (45%) respiratory conditions, skin disease (41%), eye problems (6%), and nephrotic syndrome (2%). The utilization of steroid fluticasone was the most commonly prescribed (39.8%) followed by betamethasone (27.6%) and prednisolone (6.3%) and hydrocortisone (9.1%). Most of the prescription was done in 2019 (30.3%) and of all only 13.6% were tapered.

Conclusion: The study shows 22.5% of paediatric patients was given corticosteroids and some of corticosteroid were given in longer duration than recommended and most of the drugs were given without tapering.