Predictors of quality of medication prescribing in primary care in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia

Identifying the indicators of good quality medication prescribing assists physicians in preventing medication errors. This study in Riyadh city aimed to examine the relationship between physicians’ self-reported influences on prescribing and the quality of their prescribing, defined as the completeness and accuracy of their prescription documentation. A sample of 600 randomly selected prescriptions written by 87 physicians were rated as high or low quality. The same physicians completed a questionnaire to determine the indicators of quality prescribing. The 7 components identified with factor loadings +0.5 or –0.5 were subjected to binary logistic regression modelling. While a range of potential quality indicators of drug prescribing were identified, none of the variables underpinning the 7 components/factors survived the binary logistic regression mode. More studies are needed that take into account other quality indicators of medication prescribing in Saudi Arabia.