A pharmacoepidemiological study of patient-pharmacist interaction in antibiotics’ dispensing at a pharmacy

Abstract

Self-treatment with antibiotics and their OTC-dispensing is one of the major problems associated with the inappropriate use of antibiotics. The study was aimed to identify the features of the behavior of patients and pharmacists in antibiotics’ dispensing at a pharmacy. The pharmacoepidemiological study by questioning 812 visitors of pharmacies and 302 pharmacists was performed. There was shown the high incidence of self-treatment with antibiotics (84.4%). Along with the physician’s prescription, the patient’s drug choice is significantly influenced by the personal experience of the drug taking and the advice of relatives/friends. The patient’s behavior was found to be dependent on the age: middle-aged persons (45-59 years) had the most appropriate behavior, and the persons of elderly and senile age (60 years and older) had the least appropriate behavior. The pharmacists appeared to violate antibiotics’ dispensing regulations (54.3%), and 86.3% of patients also indicated on this fact. Many pharmacists (36.4%) consider self-treatment with antibiotics as acceptable. Therefore, this study demonstrated a low patients’ and pharmacists’ awareness of the antimicrobial agents features (including the antibiotic resistance development). It is necessary to increase patients’ awareness and to improve pharmacists’ professional knowledge on the use of antibiotics.