OBJECTIVES: Taking medications during pregnancy has been related to adverse effects for both the mother and the fetus. However, avoiding drug utilization is difficult due to the chance to occur pregnancy-related complications. This study aims to evaluate the prescribed medication use pattern and its determinants among pregnant women in Ethiopia.

METHODS: This study used the national representative secondary data obtained from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic health survey (DHSprogram.com/Data). Simple descriptive statistics were used to present respondent socio-economic characteristics. Bivariate and multivariate regression models were performed consecutively to examine the association between variables. Variables with p<0.25 during bivariate analysis were further analyzed with a multivariate regression and a significant association was detected if p < 0.05 at a 95% confidence interval.

RESULTS: About 10,29 (91.8%) of surveyed pregnant had taken at least one prescription drug. Thus, supplementary drugs were dominant (34% of Iron folate and Zinc). Among the non-supplementary drugs, antibiotics, antimalarial and anthelmintic drugs were taken by 10%, 2%, and 0.1% of pregnant women, respectively. The majority (71%) of pregnant took a prescribed medication during their second trimester and above. Less than half (35%) pregnant had received Antenatal Care (ANC) during their pregnancy. Concerning the determinants younger age, poor wealth status, needed pregnancy, a prior history of live birth, and starting ANC visit during first-trimester has shown a significance during multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: A study has shown that pregnant women in Ethiopia are less likely to use pregnancy-related medications such as supplements, anthelmintic, and preventative anti-malarial drugs. A lower rate of visiting ANC clinics was also observed in the study. However, Ethiopia has several predisposing risk factors for complications associated with pregnancy, such as the high prevalence of poverty, infectious diseases, malaria, malnutrition, and other sociodemographic factors. Hence, emphasis on how to maximize the use of those medications is required.