Transcript RATIONAL DRUG USE

Assessment of Patient Knowledge
Regarding Drugs Prescribed and
Dispensed in Some Health Insurance
Outpatient Clinics in Alexandria

Rational prescription and use of drugs has
been a concern in both developed and
developing countries during the last two
decades and been promoted by WHO and
others.

The
quality
of
dispensing
and
patient
knowledge of drugs has been overlooked,
although patient knowledge is considered as
one of the essential prerequisites for patient
compliance with treatment.

The aim of this study is to assess patients’
knowledge regarding drugs prescribed and
dispensed and to identify its determinants in
five outpatient clinics affiliated to Health
Insurance Organization in Alexandria .

This study is a part of a larger drug
utilization study, where a random sample of
30 encounters per each physician of all 62
general practitioners, internal medicine and
ENT specialists working in the selected
clinics was carried out as recommended by
WHO for studies describing current
treatment practice, so the required sample of
patients was 1860.

All interviewed patients were asked about
names of prescribed drugs, dose regimens for
all prescribed drugs, duration of treatments and
reasons for prescription. Patient reported each
attribute of patient drug knowledge on a 2 point
scale that scored 0 (did not know the attribute)
or 1 (knew the attribute).
Female
43.3%
Male
56.7%
3018.3%
4017.9%
5015.4%
209.9%
1019.5%
60+
14.5%
Less than
10 years
4.5%
Clerk
24.2%
Professional
9.8%
Student
24.0%
Skilled worker
8.6%
Non-skilled
worker
11.9%
Housewife
13.3%
Recurrent
82.7%
Retired
8.1%
New
17.3%
The mean patient knowledge score was
2.49.
 In
relation to factors independently
associated with patient knowledge score,
two factors were significant namely,
patient occupation and number of
dispensed drugs.

Based on this study, training of pharmacists to
be active members of the health care team and
to offer useful advice to patients about health
and dispensed drugs is very critical for
improvement of the quality of their practice.

Within the available resources
and
existing level of training, the quality of
dispensing can be improved by giving
priority to patients with a low level of
knowledge of dispensed drugs, particularly
older patients, those with low educational
level and those with greater number of
drugs.

Intervention studies aimed at improving
the quality of dispensing should be carried
out using patient knowledge scores.