ABSTRACT
Objective To examine the association between anti -diarrhea medicine sales volume and the reported cases of intestinal infectious diseases in Hangzhou.Methods Sales data of three over -the -counter drugs including G dysentery Sha,berberine and Smecta from 2006 to 2010 were collected and standardize.Correlations between out -patient cases of infectious and non -infectious diarrheal from 9 hospitals and medicine sales volume were analyzed respectively.Results From 2006 to 2010,berberine had the highest standardized daily drug dose (DDD)with median 1 600.32.The peak of DDD occurred on July in year 2007,2008 and 2012;while on August in year 2006,2009 and 2010.There was positive correlation between medicine sales volume and infectious diarrhea in year 2006,2007,2008 and 2010,the correlation coefficients were 0.635,0.448,0.298 and 0.217 respectively (P <0.01).The same correlation was occurred in non -infectious diarrhea in year 2006 to 2008 as well and the total correlation coefficient of the three years was 0.419 (P <0.01).Conclusion A positive correlation has been found between the anti -diarrheal medicine sales volume and incidence of infectious and non -infectious intestinal diseases,demonstrating that pharmacy monitoring could have a positive effect on early detection of outbreaks of intestinal diseases.