Abstract: Objective To describe the clinical utilization of ribavirin in Ningbo city, Yinzhou District. Methods We conducted a descriptive analysis of the clinical utilization of ribavirin in 3 general hospitals and 24 community health centers from 2010 to 2016 by using Yinzhou healthcare information database. Results During the study period, we found 1587 504 outpatients' prescriptions of ribavirin and 673,661 ribavirin users. Ribavirin injections accounted for 97.74% of all ribavirin prescriptions. In addition, ribavirin was mainly prescribed by primary grade medical institutions. The result showed the number of prescriptions and users of ribavirin was decreasing. Moreover, ribavirin prescriptions of children (≤14) accounted for 50.56% of the total number of ribavirin prescriptions. Among all ribavirin prescriptions, there were 68.85% recorded diagnosis of acute upper respiratory tract infection. Conclusion The results indicated that there were large amount of irrational prescriptions of ribavirin. Clinicians should adhere to the indication of ribavirin injection and pay attention to the treatment.

Key words: ribavirin, database, drug utilization, rational drug use