Cargando…
Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district
INTRODUCTION: Rational use of medicines requires that patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs. Irrational prescription of antibiotics has been reported in many health systems across the world. In Uganda, mainly nurses and assistant medical officers (Clinical officers) prescr...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769467/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370280 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243868 |
_version_ | 1783629332572274688 |
---|---|
author | Okello, Nelson Oloro, Joseph Kyakwera, Catherine Kumbakumba, Elias Obua, Celestino |
author_facet | Okello, Nelson Oloro, Joseph Kyakwera, Catherine Kumbakumba, Elias Obua, Celestino |
author_sort | Okello, Nelson |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Rational use of medicines requires that patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs. Irrational prescription of antibiotics has been reported in many health systems across the world. In Uganda, mainly nurses and assistant medical officers (Clinical officers) prescribe for children at level III and IV primary care facilities (health center II and IV). Nurses are not primarily trained prescribers; their antibiotic prescription maybe associated with errors. There is a need to understand the practices of antibiotic prescription among prescribers in the public primary care facilities. We therefore determined antibiotic prescription practices of prescribers for children under five years at health center III and IV in Mbarara district, South Western Uganda. METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study. We reviewed outpatient records of children <5 years of age retrospectively. Information obtained from the outpatient registers were captured in predesigned data abstraction form. Health care providers working at health centers III and IV were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. They provided information on socio-demographic, health facility, antibiotic prescription practices and availability of reference tools. Data was analyzed using STATA software version 13∙0. RESULTS: There were 1218 outpatients records of children under five years reviewed and 35 health care providers interviewed. The most common childhood illness diagnosed was upper respiratory tract infection. It received the most antibiotic prescription (53%). The most commonly prescribed oral antibiotics were cotrimoxazole and amoxicillin, and ceftriaxone and benzyl penicillin were the commonest prescribed injectable antibiotics. Up to 68.4% of the antibiotic prescription was irrational. No prescriber or facility factors were associated with irrational antibiotic prescription practices. CONCLUSION: Upper respiratory tract infection is the most diagnosed condition in children under five years with Cotrimoxazole and Amoxicillin being the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics are being prescribed irrationally at health centers III and IV in Mbarara District. Training and support supervision of prescribers at health centers III and IV in Mbarara district need to be prioritized by the district health team. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7769467 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77694672021-01-08 Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district Okello, Nelson Oloro, Joseph Kyakwera, Catherine Kumbakumba, Elias Obua, Celestino PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Rational use of medicines requires that patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs. Irrational prescription of antibiotics has been reported in many health systems across the world. In Uganda, mainly nurses and assistant medical officers (Clinical officers) prescribe for children at level III and IV primary care facilities (health center II and IV). Nurses are not primarily trained prescribers; their antibiotic prescription maybe associated with errors. There is a need to understand the practices of antibiotic prescription among prescribers in the public primary care facilities. We therefore determined antibiotic prescription practices of prescribers for children under five years at health center III and IV in Mbarara district, South Western Uganda. METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study. We reviewed outpatient records of children <5 years of age retrospectively. Information obtained from the outpatient registers were captured in predesigned data abstraction form. Health care providers working at health centers III and IV were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. They provided information on socio-demographic, health facility, antibiotic prescription practices and availability of reference tools. Data was analyzed using STATA software version 13∙0. RESULTS: There were 1218 outpatients records of children under five years reviewed and 35 health care providers interviewed. The most common childhood illness diagnosed was upper respiratory tract infection. It received the most antibiotic prescription (53%). The most commonly prescribed oral antibiotics were cotrimoxazole and amoxicillin, and ceftriaxone and benzyl penicillin were the commonest prescribed injectable antibiotics. Up to 68.4% of the antibiotic prescription was irrational. No prescriber or facility factors were associated with irrational antibiotic prescription practices. CONCLUSION: Upper respiratory tract infection is the most diagnosed condition in children under five years with Cotrimoxazole and Amoxicillin being the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics are being prescribed irrationally at health centers III and IV in Mbarara District. Training and support supervision of prescribers at health centers III and IV in Mbarara district need to be prioritized by the district health team. Public Library of Science 2020-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7769467/ /pubmed/33370280 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243868 Text en © 2020 Okello et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Okello, Nelson Oloro, Joseph Kyakwera, Catherine Kumbakumba, Elias Obua, Celestino Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title | Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title_full | Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title_fullStr | Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title_full_unstemmed | Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title_short | Antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers III and IV in Mbarara district |
title_sort | antibiotic prescription practices among prescribers for children under five at public health centers iii and iv in mbarara district |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769467/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370280 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243868 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT okellonelson antibioticprescriptionpracticesamongprescribersforchildrenunderfiveatpublichealthcentersiiiandivinmbararadistrict AT olorojoseph antibioticprescriptionpracticesamongprescribersforchildrenunderfiveatpublichealthcentersiiiandivinmbararadistrict AT kyakweracatherine antibioticprescriptionpracticesamongprescribersforchildrenunderfiveatpublichealthcentersiiiandivinmbararadistrict AT kumbakumbaelias antibioticprescriptionpracticesamongprescribersforchildrenunderfiveatpublichealthcentersiiiandivinmbararadistrict AT obuacelestino antibioticprescriptionpracticesamongprescribersforchildrenunderfiveatpublichealthcentersiiiandivinmbararadistrict |