Rational Use Of Medicines Research Articles

Analysis of rational prescription of medicines by village clinics: a repeated cross-sectional study of a province in eastern China.

To analyse the rational prescription of medicines by village clinics following China's implementation of the New Healthcare System Reform (NHCSR). Retrospective study. Village clinics in a province in eastern China. Our evaluation was based on the core drug use indicators reported in the study 'How to Investigate Drug Use in Health Facilities: Selected Drug Use Indicators'. The level of rational use of medicines (RUMs) in village clinics improved in 2018 compared with 2009; the average number of drugs per prescription decreased from 3.66 to 2.77, the percentage of prescriptions including antibiotics decreased from 65.40% to 46.00%, and the percentage of prescriptions including injections decreased from 55.75% to 37.48% (all p<0.01), whereas the percentage of drugs prescribed from the list of essential medicines increased from 66.50% to 80.34%, and the percentage of drugs prescribed by generic names increased from 61.29% to 70.65% (all p<0.01). The level of RUMs improved after the implementation of the NHCSR, however, it was found that there was still a gap between the level of RUMs in 2018 and the international reference value. Financial investments, electronic prescription systems, improved supervision and regular training are essential actions that must be implemented.

Assessment of knowledge and perception of prescribers towards rational medicine use in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Prescribers must possess extensive knowledge and maintain a positive attitude towards the rational use of medicines to achieve desirable treatment outcomes and effectively prevent treatment failures, increased costs, drug toxicities, and interactions. The objective of this study was to evaluate prescribers' understanding and perception concerning the rational use of medicines in public hospitals. Additionally, the study aimed to identify the factors that influence rational prescribing practices. A structured data instrument was developed to collect demographic data and evaluate participants' knowledge and perception of rational medicine use, in line with the study objectives. Chi-squared statistics and Fisher's exact test were utilized to identify factors associated with good knowledge and perception among participants. Logistic regression was then employed to assess the strength of the associations, with odd ratios reported at a significant level of 0.05. Out of 192 participants, 85.4% held a positive view of rational medicine use, stressing patient safety and recognizing risks like antimicrobial resistance and polypharmacy. Perception was influenced by factors such as prescriber profession, access to references, and drug bulletin updates. Additionally, 65.6% demonstrated good knowledge of rational medicine use, which was notably influenced by factors like using standard prescribing guidelines, having a functional Drug and Therapeutics Committee, prescriber profession, and the frequency of drug bulletin updates. The study emphasizes the critical need to address knowledge gaps among healthcare professionals, especially nurses and other prescribers, to ensure the safe and effective use of medications. It highlights the positive influence of utilizing preferred prescribing references and the existence of functional Drug and Therapeutics Committees in hospitals on knowledge levels. However, the unexpected findings regarding the limited impact of frequent updates of drug bulletins require further investigation.

ОЦЕНКА И ПРОГНОЗИРОВАНИЕ РИСКА ПАЦИЕНТСКОГО НОН-КОМПЛАЕНСА В СИСТЕМЕ СПЕЦИАЛИЗИРОВАННОЙ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧЕСКОЙ ПОМОЩИ НАСЕЛЕНИЮ С ОНКОЛОГИЧЕСКИМИ ЗАБОЛЕВАНИЯМИ

Cardiovascular, oncological and other diseases occupy a significant place in the structure of morbidity and causes of death of the population, the growth of which largely depends on lifestyle and risk factors. Identification of risk factors contributing to the development of cancer is one of the main achievements of epidemiology of the 21st century. Subsequent research helped scientists to build multifactorial algorithms for predicting the risks of cancer and mortality from them, which greatly facilitated the work of practitioners in the field of risk stratification. The above indicates that the research results of many foreign and domestic authors confirm that significant predictors of cancer are risk factors such as old age, pre-existing cancer in blood relatives, smoking, obesity, alcohol, certain types of viral infections, certain chemicals, ionizing radiation, including UV rays of the sun and others. It is known that reducing the influence of risk factors leads to a decrease in morbidity and mortality from cancer. An important condition in the treatment of oncological diseases is the rational and effective use of medicines. Pharmaceutical specialists play an active role in this process. In the treatment of long-term or lifelong diseases, such as cancer, great importance is attached to the process of daily pharmacotherapy, compliance with the rules of adherence to treatment or compliance. Thus, problems with patients performing medical appointments are based on a complex of factors, including psychological and behavioral ones, including patients' adherence to treatment.

AUTOMEDICAÇÃO ENTRE ESTUDANTES UNIVERSITÁRIOS DA ÁREA DA SAÚDE NO BRASIL: UMA REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA DA LITERATURA

This study aimed to investigate, through an integrative review of the literature, the main reasons that lead undergraduate students in the health area to self-medicate, since they have the responsibility to guide society on the appropriate use and medicine insurance. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, eleven studies were selected in which it was identified that, among the variables that influenced the practice of self-medication that were mentioned at least once in the productions, the most frequent were self-knowledge, advice from third parties, previous medical concession and ease of access. It is argued that undergraduate students in the health area are a portion of the population who self-medicate in an exacerbated manner, mainly because they believe they have sufficient theoretical, technical and scientific knowledge to carry out such practice. Thinking about this serious public health problem, we can see that there is a lack of data to promote effective measures in the rational use of medicines. It is necessary to understand that the idea of ​​integrated health care comprises knowledge developed collectively by professionals, teachers, managers and users/patients, co-responsible for the production of health, so that self-medication can be responsible for all segments of health. society.

DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPETENCY MATRIX IN A FRAMEWORK FOR THE PRACTICE OF RATIONAL MEDICINE USE IN THE TREATMENT OF SYSTEMIC ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

Background: The use of medicines plays an important therapeutic role in the care of hypertension. Nonetheless, the inadequacies related to pharmacotherapy are still a major challenge to health, and the lack of systematisation of the competencies to be acquired during the training of health professionals undermines practices involving rational medicine use in the treatment of hypertension. This study was intended to develop and validate a competency matrix that can be used in the education and training of health professionals, contributing to the practice of rational medicine use (RMU) in the treatment of systemic arterial hypertension (SAH). Methods: This is applied research containing an integrative review and exploratory research with the presence of a systematic search, following guidelines proposed by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the PRISMA group, and the building of the competency matrix was carried out through a focus group with researchers who work in the area registered in two research groups certified by an agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The matrix was validated using the Delphi method by expert judges selected using Fehring’s technique and scoring criteria. Results: The panel of experts reached a consensus on the relevance of four intrinsic dimensions containing seven competencies and 31 knowledge, skills and attitudes of the RMU in SAH and three extrinsic dimensions that encompassed nine competencies and 22 knowledge, skills and attitudes of the RMU in SAH, with a frequency of agreement greater than 80%.

Expectation and Needs of Medical Students Towards the Implementation of Virtual Simulation in Learning Rational Use of Medicine.

The irrational use of medicines remains prevalent globally despite education efforts, leading to decreased treatment quality and increased healthcare costs. With the rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual simulation offers a promising solution to enhance the teaching of rational medicine use among medical students. This study aimed to investigate medical students' perspectives and needs regarding the implementation of virtual simulation in learning the rational use of medicines. This study, conducted at Universitas Indonesia from August 2022 to September 2023, used a mixed-method approach to assess the needs for developing virtual simulation in education of rational medicine use. A validated questionnaire with 14 closed-ended and 14 open-ended questions was completed by 281 medical students. The quantitative data were analysed descriptively, using SPSS v16, while thematic analysis was applied to open-ended responses. Students perceived virtual simulations to be the most effective tool for distance learning and suggested features like case scenarios, realistic representation, a good user interface, and user-friendly navigation. The majority preferred a 10-20-minute duration for virtual simulations. Additionally, 52.3% had no prior knowledge of the rational use of medicines, but acknowledged its importance. Virtual simulations could be used to explain the concept, management, and implementation of the rational use of medicines. Virtual simulation should be implemented in distance learning on rational medicine use to increase students' motivation, understanding, retention, interactivity, and focus. The findings might be utilized by medical educators to tailor virtual simulation design to meet medical students' needs and expectations.

Mental Health and Medicine Use for Headache: A Nationally Representative Study of Adolescents in Denmark.

This study examined the prevalence of headache medicine use among Danish adolescents and explores the link between mental health, frequent headaches, and medicine use for headache. We hypothesized that poor mental health increases headache occurrence, leading to greater medicine use. The 2022 Danish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study surveyed 5292 students aged 11, 13, and 15. Self-reported data included headache frequency, medicine use for headache, and five mental health indicators: life satisfaction, emotional symptoms, loneliness, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Multivariate logistic regression analyses assessed the association between mental health indicators and headache medicine use, adjusting for headache frequency. Weekly headaches were reported by 33.1%, and 43.6% used headache medicine in the past month. Poor mental health correlated with higher headache and medicine use rates. Analyses adjusted for sex, age group, and occupational social class found significantly increased odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for medicine use for headache among students with low life satisfaction (2.27; 1.88-2.75), among students with 2+ emotional symptoms (2.28; 1.92-2.69), students who often felt lonely (2.08; 1.69-2.55), students with low self-efficacy (1.37; 1.16-1.61) and students with low self-esteem (1.59; 1.36-1.85). When accounting for headache frequency, the association between poor mental health and medicine use diminished and became nonsignificant. Poor mental health was linked to increased medicine use for headache. The findings suggest that frequent headaches may explain the association between poor mental health and the use of headache medicine. Promoting rational medicine use and enhancing mental health among adolescents is essential.

O PAPEL DO FARMACÊUTICO NA ORIENTAÇÃO E CONSEQUÊNCIA DO USO INDISCRIMINADO DE MEDICAMENTOS EM VENDAS LIVRES (MIPS) EM DROGARIAS

This study investigates the essential role of pharmacists in guiding the safe use of over-the- counter (OTC) medicines, addressing the risks of self-medication such as toxicity, adverse reactions, and dangerous drug interactions. The literature review was conducted based on scientific articles, books, and manuals from the Ministry of Health, focusing on the importance of pharmaceutical guidance to prevent the improper use of these medicines. The research highlights the need for awareness and health education to promote the rational use of OTC medicines, emphasizing the pharmacist's relevance in preventing complications and promoting public health.

A Novel Rational Medicine Use System Based on Domain Knowledge Graph

Medication errors, which could often be detected in advance, are a significant cause of patient deaths each year, highlighting the critical importance of medication safety. The rapid advancement of data analysis technologies has made intelligent medication assistance applications possible, and these applications rely heavily on medical knowledge graphs. However, current knowledge graph construction techniques are predominantly focused on general domains, leaving a gap in specialized fields, particularly in the medical domain for medication assistance. The specialized nature of medical knowledge and the distinct distribution of vocabulary between general and biomedical texts pose challenges. Applying general natural language processing techniques directly to the medical domain often results in lower accuracy due to the inadequate utilization of contextual semantics and entity information. To address these issues and enhance knowledge graph production, this paper proposes an optimized model for named entity recognition and relationship extraction in the Chinese medical domain. Key innovations include utilizing Medical Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (MCBERT) for character-level embeddings pre-trained on Chinese biomedical corpora, employing Bi-directional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU) networks for extracting enriched contextual features, integrating a Conditional Random Field (CRF) layer for optimal label sequence output, using the Piecewise Convolutional Neural Network (PCNN) to capture comprehensive semantic information and fusing it with entity features for better classification accuracy, and implementing a microservices architecture for the medication assistance review system. These enhancements significantly improve the accuracy of entity relationship classification in Chinese medical texts. The model achieved good performance in recognizing most entity types, with an accuracy of 88.3%, a recall rate of 85.8%, and an F1 score of 87.0%. In the relationship extraction stage, the accuracy reached 85.7%, the recall rate 82.5%, and the F1 score 84.0%.

The effect of nursing interventions applied at home to improve rational use of medicines and awareness of elderly individuals: A randomized controlled study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nursing interventions applied to elderly individuals to improve rational use of medicines (RUM) and awareness through home visits. It was carried out in a prospective, randomized controlled experimental design with the pretest-post-test control group. The study was completed with 74 elderly individuals aged ≥65 years living in a rural area. The intervention group received education, counselling, brochures and pill boxes through home visits to increase RUM and awareness. The study data were collected between September and December 2022 using the face-to-face interview method, the elderly identification form, the Rational Use of Medicines Scale and the Rational Drug Use Awareness Scale. After nursing interventions were applied at home, it was determined that, the mean scores of RUM and Awareness of RUM of the intervention group increased compared to the control group and that, interventions to improve RUM and awareness were effective. In line with these results, training sessions on RUM should be organized periodically for elderly individuals and home visits should be planned by nurses at regular intervals to ensure the sustainability of RUM in the home environment.

Identifying interventions that improve medication safety & rational use of medicines in India.

Background & objectives Medication-related harm is known to be the cause for about 1/10th of hospitalizations. Some estimates from India show that about 90 per cent of medicines consumed are inessential or irrational and contribute towards high out-of-pocket expenditure on health. In this context, the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2022 constituted a National Task Force (NTF) to explore possible solutions that could improve safe and rational use of medicines (SRUMs). The objective of this study was to identify research ideas in the field of SRUM through a survey of relevant stakeholders, and further to prioritize the research ideas using a pre-identified set of criteria. Methods The responses from the identified stakeholders were assessed using the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative method, which is an established research priority-setting methodology. First, the NTF asked for two to six research ideas from relevant Indian and global stakeholders on solutions to improve SRUM. The ideas were checked for duplicates, re-phrased where necessary and classified into various sub-themes. Subsequently, the research ideas were scored by Indian experts with relevant technical expertise using a pre-defined set of five criteria: innovativeness, effectiveness, translational value, answerability and applicability. Each research idea received from a stakeholder was assigned a score under each of the five criteria. The overall research priority score was calculated as a mean of all five criteria-specific scores and converted into a percentage. Results The final output of the prioritization process was a list of research ideas or questions, ranked by their scores. Total 209 unique ideas were received from 190 respondents, which were scored by 27 experts. The top three research topics on medication safety focused on cost-effective strategies for improving antimicrobial stewardship, safe use of poly-pharmacy in geriatric patients and drug take-back policy interventions. Regarding the rational use of medicine, the top three topics included testing mobile application-based antimicrobial stewardship interventions, development of diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance, and behavioural interventions. Interpretation & conclusions Several priority ideas found in this study also align with those of global priority, e.g., safe disposal practices and enhanced pharmacovigilance, rational use of medicines. Patient engagement, which underlines many of the top scoring ideas found in this study, is also inclined with the top research priorities reported by the WHO priority exercise on research into the safe use of medicines. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first such work from a low- and middle- income country on medication safety and rational use of medicines. The findings of this research priority-setting exercise can help to guide research for the development of policy-relevant and novel interventions to improve SRUM in India.

Trend analysis and regulatory strategies for traditional Chinese medicine formula granules

With the advent of the &quot;post-pilot era&quot; of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules, there are still a series of policy, technical, and industrial issues that need to be addressed in their production, regulation, and application practices. This article systematically reviews the development history and relevant policy evolution of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules, and summarizes the current industrial status in terms of quality standards, medical insurance payments, and market landscape. Based on a comparative analysis and positioning discussion between traditional Chinese medicine formula granules and traditional herbal decoctions, it is believed that the following practical issues still exist in this field:(1)A reasonable competitive evolution mechanism has not yet been formed, making it difficult to &quot;improve quality and efficiency&quot; of products;(2)The number of national standards is limited, and local standards operate independently;(3)Production processes are relatively constrained;(4)There is a contradiction between fixed equivalents and fluctuations in raw materials;(5)Market positioning needs to be clarified, and medication scenarios are limited. Furthermore, based on the perspective of shaping a healthy ecosystem for the traditional Chinese medicine industry and promoting rational clinical use of traditional Chinese medicine, the following suggestions are put forward:(1)Guide the formation of a product-based competitive landscape for traditional Chinese medicine formula granules;(2)Promote the establishment of a comprehensive regulatory system for the entire production process of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules;(3)Conduct systematic research on the relationship between the equivalents and intake of formula granules;(4)Break through existing application scenarios and reasonably expand the application forms of formula granules.

The assessment of the state of prescription dispensing by pharmacists in the context of the electronic prescription introduction in Ukraine

Aim. To assess the current state of prescription dispensing of medicines and the effectiveness of introducing electronic prescriptions (EP) based on the results of a survey of pharmacists. Materials and methods. The study materials included regulatory legal acts, scientific publications, data from the State Register of Medicines of Ukraine, and the results of a sociological survey. The general scientific (analysis, generalization, synthesis), theoretical (structural, systemic analysis) and practical (sociological analysis) methods of analysis were used in the study. Results. It has been determined that in accordance with the provisions of the current regulatory legal acts, currently there is a list of OTC medicines in Ukraine. In 2023, it included 3191 medicines. And it is only 21.6 % of all medicines registered in Ukraine as of 18.11.2023. The results of the survey of 262 pharmaceutical employees of pharmacies in different regions have shown that among the main advantages of the introduction of the drug dispensing by EP, 77.5 % of respondents point out a significant reduction in the number of errors due to doctor’s unclear handwriting, 59.9 % note reliable control over dispensing of medicines. It has been determined that 231 pharmacists (89.2 % of respondents) believe that the functioning of EP will enable pharmacies to comply with the requirements of the legislation on prescription medicines. It has been found that more than half – 201 respondents (76.7 %) believe that the introduction of EP in the national healthcare system will prevent the irrational use of antibacterial drugs. The main difficulties that pharmacists most often encounter when dispensing medicines by EP have been identified, in particular technical failures (54 %), the patient’s misunderstanding of how EP works (40.5 %), and the lack of Internet access (30.5 %). It has been found that 94.7 % of pharmacists are familiar with the latest changes in the legislation on dispensing of medicines from pharmacies. Conclusions. Based on the analysis, the main directions of solving current problems related to dispensing of prescription medicines in Ukraine have been identified. It has been determined that the introduction of EP for all finished medicines will contribute to the protection of the patient’s health, the rational use of prescription medicines and reliable control over their dispensing.

A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF P-DRUG IN A TEACHING HOSPITAL.

Objective: Postgraduates represent the future generation of practitioners and there aren't many studies on the P-drug idea that specifically target them. Hence, we have taken up this study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of P-drug among the postgraduates. Methods: A prospective observational study with a cross-sectional design was conducted at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital. Participants' responses were gathered using a pre-validated questionnaire. It evaluated participants' understanding of the P-drug concept, attitudes about P-drugs as treatments for illnesses, and actual P-drug prescribing behaviours. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 26 was used to analyze data after compiling data in the Excel sheet. Results: Out of 230 participants, majority were the females (67.8%). 63% of participants were aware of the “rational use of medicines,” and around 57% of them knew about the P-drug concept. 44.8% were aware of STEP criteria which is applied to select P-drug. Only 66 were practising with the P-drug list and the majority of them opined that teaching programmes are necessary to create awareness about the practice of the P-drug. Conclusion: It is encouraging that the current study's findings point to reasonable drug usage rather than irrational use. The P-drug idea is a useful instrument for enhancing medical treatment and encouraging ethical drug usage. Furthermore, additional research has to be done to determine how P-drug use affects patient outcomes and healthcare expenditures over the long run.

Wearable, Biocompatible, and Dual-Emission Ocular Multisensor Patch for Continuous Profiling of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics in Tears.

The abuse or misuse of antibiotics in clinical and agricultural settings severely endangers human health and ecosystems, which has raised profound concerns for public health worldwide. Trace detection and reliable discrimination of commonly used fluoroquinolone (FQ) antibiotics and their analogues have consequently become urgent to guide the rational use of antibiotic medicines and deliver efficient treatments for associated diseases. Herein, we report a wearable eye patch integrated with a quadruplex nanosensor chip for noninvasive detection and discrimination of primary FQ antibiotics in tears during routine eyedrop treatment. A set of dual-mode fluorescent nanoprobes of red- or green-emitting CdTe quantum dots integrated with lanthanide ions and a sensitizer, adenosine monophosphate, were constructed to provide an enhanced fluorescence up to 45-fold and nanomolar sensitivity toward major FQs owing to the aggregation-regulated antenna effect. The aggregation-driven, CdTe-Ln(III)-based microfluidic sensor chip is highly specific to FQ antibiotics against other non-FQ counterparts or biomolecular interfering species and is able to accurately discriminate nine types of FQ or non-FQ eyedrop suspensions using linear discriminant analysis. The prototyped wearable sensing detector has proven to be biocompatible and nontoxic to human tissues, which integrates the entire optical imaging modules into a miniaturized, smartphone-based platform for field use and reduces the overall assay time to ∼5 min. The practicability of the wearable eye patch was demonstrated through accurate quantification of antibiotics in a bactericidal event and the continuous profiling of FQ residues in tears after using a typical prescription antibiotic eyedrop. This technology provides a useful supplement to the toolbox for on-site and real-time examination and regulation of inappropriate daily drug use that might potentially lead to long-term antibiotic abuse and has great implications in advancing personal healthcare techniques for the regulation of daily medication therapy.

A Study on the Progress of Astragalus-Coptis Chinensis Medicinal Pair in the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus

According to the relevant studies in recent years, it was found that astragalus - Coptis Chinensis drug pair and its analogous formula have a broad prospect for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Pharmacological studies have shown that Coptis Chinensis possesses the pharmacological activities of antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, lipid regulating, hypoglycemic, anti-arrhythmic, and antioxidant activities[1], and Astragalus possesses the effects of enhancing the function of the immune system, antimyocardial ischemia, bi-directional regulation of blood pressure, anti-tumor, anti-aging, hypoglycemia, and protection of metabolic tissues (liver and kidneys, etc.) [2] [3], the use of Astragalus and Coptis Chinensis pairs has demonstrated significant multiple effects. Specifically, this combination not only effectively reduces blood glucose levels, but also significantly enhances the body's sensitivity to insulin, thus helping to improve the phenomenon of insulin resistance and further enhance the overall health status of patients [1][2][3]. This paper analyzes and researches the research progress of astragalus-Coptis Chinensis medicinal pair and its analogous formulae in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the improvement of its complications through the collation and summarization of the literature, in order to lay a certain theoretical research foundation for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus by astragalus-Coptis Chinensis medicinal pair and its related formulae, prevention of diabetes mellitus complications, and rational use of medicines in diabetes mellitus clinical treatment.

Advances and challenges in the clinical practice of respiratory tract pharmacology and pharmacotherapy

This paper addresses the advances and challenges in the clinical practice of respiratory tract pharmacology and pharmacotherapy. Respiratory pharmacology has evolved significantly, offering a wide range of medications for the treatment of conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, and risk factor modification strategies, such as smoking cessation, are key to improving lung function and reducing exacerbations. The use of modern drugs, as highlighted in "Goodman &amp; Gilman's: The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics", is complemented by updated guidelines, such as those of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and the Brazilian Society of Pulmonology and Phthisiology. These guidelines aim not only to relieve symptoms but also to promote an integrated approach that improves patients' quality of life. Effective implementation of these strategies requires not only up-to-date scientific knowledge, but also public health policies that promote the rational use of medicines and educational interventions. Therefore, this study underscores the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to address the complex challenges associated with chronic respiratory diseases.

Pharmacist's knowledge and attitude towards self-medication practices: a cross-sectional study for the development and validation of questionnaire.

Pharmacists play an essential role in self-medication by providing guidance and counselling services to consumers; hence, it is necessary to assess pharmacists' awareness and attitude towards self-medication to promote responsible self-medication practices. To develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess the knowledge and attitude of pharmacists towards self-medication practices and their role in promoting responsible self-medication. A questionnaire was developed in English after a relevant literature review, which was further administered to a sample of 105 community pharmacists. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using the Karl-Pearson correlation and Cronbach alpha statistics. Content validity was evaluated by subject experts. The dimensional structure of items was assessed through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The final questionnaire comprises 27 items for knowledge and attitude with a Karl-Pearson correlation value of 0.896 and Cronbach alpha value of 0.814 (24 items), indicating good internal consistency and reproducibility. Factor analysis identified five factors: namely, (i) attitude towards providing guidance and advice to consumers to promote responsible SMP, (ii) attitude towards shared responsibility for promoting rational medicine supply and use, (iii) knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of SMP, (iv) knowledge of the definition of self-medication, (v) attitude towards professional competency of a pharmacist as a healthcare provider. CFA results demonstrate good model fit with the value of Chi-square (184.56), CFI (0.937), RMSEA (0.054), and SRMR (0.075). Model validity measures ensure satisfactory validity and reliability. The findings demonstrate a valid and reliable measure for assessing the knowledge and attitude of pharmacists towards self-medication.

Feasibility and reliability of a quality indicator system for an ambulatory dispensing service.

For a medication dispensing service to function with quality, continuous evaluation is required, which is why it is necessary to have reliable measurement tools that make it possible. Quality indicators can serve as tools for managing quality, as they are variables that directly or indirectly measure changes in a situation and help evaluate the progress made in addressing it. This article aims to determine the feasibility and reliability of a quality indicator system for a drug dispensing service for paediatric outpatients in two Mexican hospitals. A study of the development type of health systems and services at a microlevel was conducted from October 2020 to October 2021 in the pharmaceutical service of two Mexican hospitals. To determine the feasibility of the quality indicators, a retrospective evaluation was performed, which considered the indicators that could be calculated with the available information to be feasible. To determine reliability, an inter-observer agreement study (Kappa (κ)) was performed. The feasibility analysis revealed that all five reference indicators related to the structure were feasible in both hospitals. In the Infantil of the Californias hospital, all six process indicators evaluated were feasible, whilst only one was found feasible in H+ Querétaro. As for outcome indicators, only one was feasible in the Infantil of the Californias hospital. The causes of non-feasibility in both hospitals were the non-documentation of the primary data related to the stages of the process and the lack of instruments to measure patient satisfaction. The reliability of the indicators showed little variability. Although not all indicators were feasible, solutions were proposed so that the 15 reference indicators could be used if an organization decided to do so. The reliability of the indicators was demonstrated, evidencing the importance of the data sheet as a tool to generate valid reliable measures.This article is part of the Hospital pharmacy, rational use of medicines and patient safety in Latin America Special Issue: https://www.drugsincontext.com/special_issues/hospital-pharmacy-rational-use-of-medicines-and-patient-safety-in-latin-america/.

The use of medications by incarcerated women: an exploratory study

Objective: To investigate the use of medicines by women deprived of their liberty in a municipality in the east of Minas Gerais. Method: The research was conducted in three stages: (I) documentary investigation, (II) analysis of medical records, and (III) application of semi-structured questionnaires. Women deprived of liberty who were part of the prison system evaluated participated in the study. The research was carried out between June 2020 and June 2021. Result: Seventeen women deprived of their liberty participated in the study, most of them black and brown (88.24%), between 30 and 49 years old (n = 9; 52.9%), and who used a total of 56 different medications, with the psychotropic class being the most prevalent (n = 28; 50%), followed by cardiovascular system drugs (n = 15; 26.8%). Conclusion: The medications most used by study participants belonged to the class of antidepressants and antiepileptics. Furthermore, the women’s medical records lacked crucial information regarding medication use. These data, combined with difficulties in access, highlight the importance of complying with public policies in favor of comprehensive health care for women deprived of their liberty, especially the right to access and rational use of medicines.