ABSTRACT
Background: Antibiotic resistance has become an emerging issue worldwide due to the rampant and excessive use of antibiotics for any and every condition. At present, antibiotics are the most commonly sold drugs in the developing countries which have been the cause for escalation of antibiotic resistance. Lack of knowledge, awareness and practice among parents regarding antibiotics use is the most important cause for antibiotic misuse.Methods: Cross sectional hospital based questionnaire study conducted among 200 parents of children attending the outpatient or inpatient department at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore; using personal interview method. Parents were asked to answer the statements on a 5-point Likert scale ('strongly agree', 'agree', 'uncertain', 'disagree', 'strongly disagree' or 'never', 'sometimes', 'often', 'most of the time', 'always'). Statistical Package of social science (SPSS) software was used for analysis of data.Results: Out of the 200 parent's majority of the respondents (69%) were mothers. There was very little difference in percentage of respondents that disagreed with notion that antibiotics must be administered in any case of fever (43.3%). 42.3% mentioned that antibiotics were always necessary in ARI. Most common symptoms to visit pediatrician included cough (23.4%), followed by ear pain (18.1%) and nasal discharge (12.9%). 17.5% of parents never questioned the pediatricians if antibiotic administration was necessary and more than 2/3rd of the parents declared that pediatricians provided sufficient information regarding diagnosis and therapy.Conclusions: Majority of parents admitted to self-administration of antibiotics. There is a need of intervention to increase awareness regarding judicious use of antibiotics and to check un-prescribed dispensing of antibiotics. Strategies for effective communication with patients and prudent prescription of antibiotics should be included in physician education to ensure patients' adherence to advice and consequently to reduce self-medication with antibiotics.
ABSTRACT
Background: Non-medical prescription drug use is an ongoing problem in India; however, there is paucity of literature in the Indian population. Objective: The objective of the present study is to explore the non-medical use of prescription medicines in urban Bangalore, South India (N = 717). Materials and Methods: Participants were recruited using a mall-intercept approach, wherein they were intercepted in 5 randomly selected shopping malls, and interviewed on their use of prescription medicines. Results: The mean age of the participants was 28 years (S.D. 5). The nonmedical use of different prescription medicine classes over the past 12 months was as follows: anti-infl ammatories and analgesics (26%), opioids (17%), antibiotics (13%), and sedatives (12%). The majority reported “use without prescription,” while “use in ways other than as prescribed” was also reported. In all cases, chemist shops were the main source of obtaining the drugs non-medically. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, non-medical use was found to be signifi cantly associated with participants’ baseline characteristics like gender, education, current employment status, and marital status. Sixty-fi ve percent stated that although “doctor’s prescription is not required for common complaints, we can decide ourselves,” while 60% stated, “it’s okay to deviate from a prescription as needed.” One hundred percent said that “using prescription medicines is more socially acceptable, and safer, compared to alcohol or illicit drugs.” Conclusion: These fi ndings underscore the need for considering various contextual factors in tailoring preventive interventions for reducing non-medical use of prescription drugs.