Dispensing of Non-Prescribed Antibiotics from Community Pharmacies of Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Pharmacy Staff's Opinion.

ABSTRACT: Community pharmacies are the main channel of antibiotics distribution. We aimed to analyze the dispensing of non-prescribed antibiotics and knowledge of pharmacy staff. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Punjab, Pakistan between December 2017 and March 2018. A self-administered, structured, pretested, and validated bilingual questionnaire was used, and we used chi-square tests in the statistical analysis. A total of 573 (91.7%) pharmacy retailers responded to the survey; 44.0% were aged 31-40 years and all were men. Approximately 81.5% of participants declared that dispensing non-prescribed antibiotics is a common practice in community pharmacies, and 51.1% considered themselves to be authorized to dispense these drugs; 69.3% believed this a contributing factor to antimicrobial resist

SUBMITTER: Majid Aziz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8143445 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature