Drug-related Problems, Usage Pattern, Comparative Clinical Effectiveness and Safety of Novel Oral Anticoagulants: A Study about Thromboembolism Events, Bleeding Risks and Hemorrhagic Episodes

The study aimed to evaluate drug-related problems, usage pattern, comparative clinical effectiveness and safety of novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) in terms of thromboembolism events, bleeding risks and hemor-rhagic episodes. This study also determined the association of clinical and demographic variables affecting throm-boembolism events, bleeding risks and hemorrhagic episodes among patients on NOACs. An observational study was conducted among chronic patients using NOACs. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were applied using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24.0. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 213 patients included in the study who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. There were more female patients 126 (59.2%) and 141 (66.2%) of the patients were less than 60-years-old. Around 121 (56.8%) of the patients had dyslipidemia and 37 (17.4%) had diabetes mellites. It was observed that 16 (18.4%) of male patients and 12 (9.5%) of female patients had thromboembolic events but this observation was statistically insignificant (p = 0.364). Regarding hemorrhagic episodes 16 (12.7%) of the females and 23 (26.4%) of the males reported bleeding events, and this observation was statistically significant (p = 0.039). This study concluded that all of the studied NOACs were clinically efficacious and safe among the studied cohort of the patients.