Glossarium

Statistical measure of drug consumption developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) used to standardize the comparative usage of various drugs between themselves or between different healthcare environments independently of cost or drug formulation. CIPARS (2005)

The Defined Daily Dose (DDD) is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. The DDD is a unit of measurement and does not necessarily reflect the recommended or Prescribed Daily Dose Therapeutic daily doses for individual patients and patient groups will often differ from the DDD as they will be based on individual characteristics (such as age, weight, ethnic differences, type and severity of disease) and pharmacokinetic considerations. Adapted from World Health Organisation Collaborative Centre (WHOCC) for drug statistics methodology documentation.