A survey to evaluate the awareness of Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) among 2nd year medical undergraduates at a rural tertiary care centre, B G Nagara

Abstract

Combination of two or more active ingredients in a fixed dose ratio is termed as fixed dose combination (FDC). Presently, there is lot of debate over rationality and irrationality of FDCs. This study was focused on medical undergraduates to evaluate the awareness about FDCs as these students are the future practitioners. Like two sides of each coin FDCs do have advantages & disadvantages and it"s up to the physician to misuse it or use it judiciously by maintaining the balance. The objective is to evaluate the awareness of Fixed dose combinations (FDCs) among 2 nd year medical students. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 2 nd year medical students of AIMS, B G Nagar. Total respondents were 134. Among them 57 participants (42.53%) are male and 77 participants (57.46%) are females. All the participants were within the age group of 19 to 21 years. The analysis of responses for assessing the awareness of students about FDCs, showed that students had a high level of awareness (>80%) regarding some of basic aspects related to FDCs like knowing the term (66.41%), their common use in prescription (67.91%), constitution of FDC (50%), providing benefits to patients by improving compliance (54.47%) and increasing therapeutic response (64.17%). However, students weren"t aware regarding the deeper scientific aspects of FDCs like need for similarity in pharmacokinetics of ingredient drugs (21.64%), rationality & approval status of FDCs available in market. Majority of the students are well aware about the basic concepts of FDCs and their usage; however they are lacking in deeper scientific concepts. It is imperative that the concept of FDCs should be emphasized in sufficient detail to these budding doctors by giving an educational intervention through an interactive lecture presentation; so that the awareness of the students can be increased substantially.