Medicines utilization and trends in Sudan between 2006 and 2010

Purpose: This article aims to assess the Sudan National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) medicines utilization trends and pattern between 2006 and 2010. Methods: A quantitative descriptive study was conducted to analyse the aggregate spending and utilization data. The aggregate medicine data used in the times series were collected from a large NHIFSudan bulk purchasing system from 2006 to 2010. The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC)Classification System and Defined Daily Dose (DDD) methodologies were applied in the study for the period 2006 - 2010, 1st to 4th quarter of each year, ATC classes (14 in all),WHO ABC and VEN (vital, essential, non-essential) categories. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: The total medicine utilization from 2006 to 2010 was 402.62 million DDD with an overall increase of 176.43 % over the period. The medicine classes that accounted for the highest utilization were medicines related to blood and blood-forming organs, followed by the cardiovascular system, general anti-infectives for systemic use, and those pertaining to the alimentary tract and metabolism. Among the most highly used medicines were folic acid, mefenamic acid and amlodipine tablets. Further analysis indicate that there was a statistically significant difference between groups {F (4, 5270) = 54.412, p < 0.001} and weak positive significant correlation between medicine utilization and both population coverage and number of patients (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results show that medicine utilization in NHIF-Sudan significantly increased from 2006 to 2010. Medicines for blood and blood-forming organs were the highest utilized class of medicines, while folic acid tablet was the most highly used medicine.