ABSTRACT
The absence of dispensing separation between private doctor clinics and pharmacies is the main challenge of theMalaysian community pharmacists. Within this context, the utilization of non-prescription medicines for minorailments treatment is one of the major roles of the pharmacists. This study aimed to evaluate the minor ailmentsmanagement using non-prescription medicines among the Malaysian community pharmacists. This was a crosssectional descriptive study. The entire population of Malaysian community pharmacists (n = 2,730) were invitedfor participation. Data were collected across the first 10 requests for minor ailments management involved adultconsumers in a working day. A total of 173 pharmacists were participated (response rate 6.3%) and 1,704 consumerswith 2,149 minor ailments were encountered. The consumers mostly have one minor ailment (78.3%) and involvedacute conditions (92.3%). Productive cough (7.3%), fever (6.3%), and dermatitis (6.1%) were most commonlymanaged by the pharmacists. Cetirizine (5.9%), paracetamol (4.7%), and diclofenac (4.2%) were most frequentlydispensed and each consumer received an average (median) of two medications. The median duration of treatment was5 days [inter-quartile range (IQR): 3–7] and the cost of treatment involved only medicines cost (median: RM 13.40;IQR: 8.00–21.00) without any consultation fee. The majority of the consumers (75.5%) sought help from pharmacistsfirst without consulting the doctors. Only 16.4% of the consumers were followed-up by the pharmacists. In conclusion,the pharmacists actively managed the minor ailments with an affordable cost of treatment. Guidelines and an auditsystem should be established to enhance the minor ailments practices of the pharmacists.