The Impact of Educational Intervention on Rational Prescribing at Public Health Facilities in Selected Rivers State Local Government Area, Nigeria

Abstract

The study's goal is to determine the efficacy of an educational intervention on rational prescribing among prescribers in selected local government areas of Rivers State, Nigeria. The World Health Organization estimates that 50% of all medicines are prescribed, dispensed, sold inappropriately and patients fail to use them correctly. This was a quasi-experimental study that measured the effect of educational intervention on rational prescribing of drugs among prescribers in public health facilities in two selected Local Government Areas (LGA) of Rivers State: Ikwerre LGA (KELGA) which served as the control and Port Harcourt LGA (PHALGA) which served as the intervention by using cluster sampling with randomization. McNemar's Chi-square test and the paired t-test were used to analyse paired data. The significance level was chosen at P\(\leq\) 0.05 . In this study, the statistical software EPI-INFO version 7.02 was employed. Nurse/midwives were found to be the most common prescribers, accounting for 48.61 percent and 44.4 percent in the intervention and control LGAs, respectively. At one month and three months after the intervention, respondents in the intervention LGA's facilities improved their knowledge and attitude (P<0.05).The average number of drugs per encounter (ANDPE), the percentage encounters with an antibiotic (PEA), the percentage encounters with an injection (PEI) were lower for the interventions group compared to the control (P<0.05). Percentage generic drug prescription (PGD) was higher in the intervention group compared to the control (P=0.001). Educational intervention proved to be a successful and long-term strategy for enhancing rational prescription in the state. The State and National Primary Health Care Development Agency, as well as other interested stakeholders, should organise update courses and continuing medical education on rational drug use on a regular basis for health care professionals.