Attitudes and behaviors of Family Physicians regarding use of antibiotics

Abstract

Objectives: Antimicrobials are the most widely used drug groups and antibiotic resistance due to irrational antimicrobial usage is a major problem in the world. The aim of this study is to evaluate attitudes of family physicians antimicrobial prescribing. Materials and methods:This study was conducted in November 2006 in Bolu and Duzce provinces where the first family physician practices were initiated in Turkey. The records of family physicians were reviewed retrospectively. Patients' data, social security institution of the patients, the diagnosis and prescribed antibiotics, duration, dosage and routes of antibiotic administration were recorded.Results: A total of 4,497 patients were included in the study consisting of 1,752 (39%) men, and 2,745 (61%) women. The mean age of the patients was 36.6 ± 22.7 years. Antimicrobials were prescribed to 1,167 patients (25.9%). Among 1,167 antibiotics, 1,064 (91.2%) were administered orally, 77 (6.6%) were paranteral and 26 (2.2%) were taken through other routes. In 39 (3.3%) patients, there was no indication for antimicrobial use. In 103 patients (9.1%) from the accurate antibiotic indication group, the choice of the agent was not consistent with the guidelines. In 273 patients (23.4%) on antimicrobial therapy, duration of the antibiotic was inappropriate. The most common indication of the antibiotic prescription was tonsillopharyngitis and the most prescribed antibiotics for this diagnosis were beta lactam/beta lactamase inhibitors. Sonuç: Sonuç olarak, solunum yolu enfeksiyonları başta olmak üzere birinci basamakta tedavi verilen hastalarda, antibiyotik kullanımı oldukça fazladır. Birinci basamakta çalışan hekimlere rasyonel antimikrobiyal kullanımı ile ilgili mezuniyet sonrası periyodik eğitimler düzenlenmelidir. Conclusions

Prescription antibiotics for outpatients in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional health survey conducted in three cities

“…In our research it was found that cephalosporins accounted 31.78% of total antibiotic prescriptions which is high as compared to the study conducted in Nepal and Turkey but low than India [7,8,19]. The highest uses were by cefixime, cefuroxime and ceftriaxone for respiratory infections and other infections.…”

Patterns of Prescription and Antibiotic Use Among Outpatients in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Bangladesh

“…In this study, antibiotics were the major drug class prescribed in children of which cephalosporin accounted 20% of total antibiotic use. It was high as compared to the study conducted in Nepal and Turkey but lower than that of India [30][31][32]. In Bangladesh, all the antibiotics were prescribed on the basis of patient's complaints and also the antibiotics were used in inappropriate doses and durations particularly among the children under-five [33,34].…”

Prescribing Practices of Physicians at Different Health Care Institutions

“…Antibiotic prescriptions were found to be the highest in PrHs (42.6%), followed by PHCs (40.7%), PbHs (35.2%), and UHs (35.2%) ( Table 4). In a study of primary health care in Turkey, 25.9% of all patients were prescribed antibiotics [6]. In another study conducted on primary health care in Turkey, nearly half of the physicians (48.4%) stated that they had written antibiotics on one of every three prescriptions (30%) [28].…”

“…The irrational use of medicines is one of the most important problems in Turkey and many other countries [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. With the "Health Transformation Program" implemented in 2003, the Turkish Ministry of Health (MoH) has identified strategies towards the elimination of such irrational use.…”