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An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: In Nigeria about 50% of oral contraceptive pill users obtain their products from proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs). This group of service providers are poorly trained and have very limited knowledge about contraception. This paper investigated the nature of the advice offered...

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Autores principales: Ujuju, Chinazo, Adebayo, Samson B, Anyanti, Jennifer, Oluigbo, Obi, Muhammad, Fatima, Ankomah, Augustine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove Medical Press 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24748802
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S57117
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author Ujuju, Chinazo
Adebayo, Samson B
Anyanti, Jennifer
Oluigbo, Obi
Muhammad, Fatima
Ankomah, Augustine
author_facet Ujuju, Chinazo
Adebayo, Samson B
Anyanti, Jennifer
Oluigbo, Obi
Muhammad, Fatima
Ankomah, Augustine
author_sort Ujuju, Chinazo
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: In Nigeria about 50% of oral contraceptive pill users obtain their products from proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs). This group of service providers are poorly trained and have very limited knowledge about contraception. This paper investigated the nature of the advice offered to simulated current and potential users of oral contraceptive pills. The main objective was to assess the nature and quality of advice provided by PPMVs to pill users. METHOD: This study is based on findings from a ‘mystery client’ approach in which three scenarios related to contraceptive pill use were simulated. Each of the 12 mystery clients simulated one of the following three scenarios: new pill users (new to family planning or switching from condom to pills); user seeking a resupply of pills; and dissatisfied pill users intending to discontinue use. Simple random sampling was used to select 410 PPMVs from a total of 1,826 in four states in Nigeria. Qualitative study using in-depth interviews was also conducted. RESULTS: A majority of the PPMVs had pills in stock on the day of the survey and resupplied pills to the clients. PPMVs also understood the reason and importance of referring clients who were new adopters of oral contraceptive methods to a health facility; 30% of the PPMVs referred new adopters to a health facility. However, demand from clients who do not want to go to health care facilities (for various reasons) necessitated the provision of oral contraceptive pills to 41% of the first time users. Some PPMVs prescribed treatment to mystery clients who presented with perceived complications arising from the use of pills, while 49% were referred to a health facility. CONCLUSION: The advice given by PPMVs often falls short of safety guidelines related to the use of oral contraceptive pills. There is a need to continuously update knowledge among the PPMVs to ensure that they provide quality oral contraceptive services as PPMVs bridge the gap between medical experts and users in rural communities.
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spelling pubmed-39862932014-04-18 An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria Ujuju, Chinazo Adebayo, Samson B Anyanti, Jennifer Oluigbo, Obi Muhammad, Fatima Ankomah, Augustine J Multidiscip Healthc Original Research INTRODUCTION: In Nigeria about 50% of oral contraceptive pill users obtain their products from proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs). This group of service providers are poorly trained and have very limited knowledge about contraception. This paper investigated the nature of the advice offered to simulated current and potential users of oral contraceptive pills. The main objective was to assess the nature and quality of advice provided by PPMVs to pill users. METHOD: This study is based on findings from a ‘mystery client’ approach in which three scenarios related to contraceptive pill use were simulated. Each of the 12 mystery clients simulated one of the following three scenarios: new pill users (new to family planning or switching from condom to pills); user seeking a resupply of pills; and dissatisfied pill users intending to discontinue use. Simple random sampling was used to select 410 PPMVs from a total of 1,826 in four states in Nigeria. Qualitative study using in-depth interviews was also conducted. RESULTS: A majority of the PPMVs had pills in stock on the day of the survey and resupplied pills to the clients. PPMVs also understood the reason and importance of referring clients who were new adopters of oral contraceptive methods to a health facility; 30% of the PPMVs referred new adopters to a health facility. However, demand from clients who do not want to go to health care facilities (for various reasons) necessitated the provision of oral contraceptive pills to 41% of the first time users. Some PPMVs prescribed treatment to mystery clients who presented with perceived complications arising from the use of pills, while 49% were referred to a health facility. CONCLUSION: The advice given by PPMVs often falls short of safety guidelines related to the use of oral contraceptive pills. There is a need to continuously update knowledge among the PPMVs to ensure that they provide quality oral contraceptive services as PPMVs bridge the gap between medical experts and users in rural communities. Dove Medical Press 2014-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC3986293/ /pubmed/24748802 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S57117 Text en © 2014 Ujuju et al. This work is published by Dove Medical Press Limited, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Original Research
Ujuju, Chinazo
Adebayo, Samson B
Anyanti, Jennifer
Oluigbo, Obi
Muhammad, Fatima
Ankomah, Augustine
An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title_full An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title_fullStr An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title_short An assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban Nigeria
title_sort assessment of the quality of advice provided by patent medicine vendors to users of oral contraceptive pills in urban nigeria
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986293/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24748802
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S57117
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