A STUDY TO APPRAISE PRACTICE AND CURRENT TRENDS CONCERNING ANTIBIOTIC USE AND RESISTANCE AMONG COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS - A CROSS SECTIONAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Sruthi S. L.*, Dr. Arya M. S. and Professor Dr. Shaiju S. Dharan

ABSTRACT

Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines. Community pharmacist play a critical role in preventing antibiotic resistance by dispensing antibiotics in a safe and rational manner and also by spreading awareness about the consequence of inappropriate use. So, it is essential to assess practice concerning antibiotic use and resistance and to describe current trends of antibiotic provision. The study was a cross-sectional observational study by using a self-administered questionnaire. The study was carried out for duration of 6 months within the community pharmacies of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. Data were collected via validated self-administered questionnaire and were subjected to analysis through SPSS statistics 13.0 and R software 4.5.1. In our study a total 120 community pharmacists were contacted and requested to fill out the questionnaire through the direct visit of each community pharmacy. A total of 120 responses were collected, of which 118 responses were completed and used for analysis. Out of these respondents 71(60.2%) were females and 47(38.9%) were males. The age group 30- 39 years constituted the highest proportion (39.8%). A total of 84 out of the 118 community pharmacist never dispensed antibiotic without a prescription. Regarding the type of antibiotics the pharmacist would really dispensed to a patient suffering from suspected bacterial infection without a prescription. Penicillin (42.6%) was the most selected class antibiotic followed by Macrolides (29.2%) and Cephalosporin (17.3%). We found no statistical significance between age, sex, qualification and experience with practice scores. Our study finding shows that community pharmacists of Thiruvananthapuram district of South Kerala majority have very good practice scoring and penicillin are most commonly dispensed antibiotics without prescription.

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