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Research in non-compliance with short-term antibiotic treatment in ambulatory patients
Date Issued |
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2010-05-10 |
Background and objective Non-compliance is one of causes of nonrationaluse of medications and prediction of this behaviour is in theinterest of rationalisation of therapy. Until now pilot research onprediction of non-compliance was made in Lithuania. This exploratorystudy revealed new hypothesis about non-compliance withantibiotic therapy.Design The purpose of this research was to identify possible riskfactors that may cause non-compliance.Setting Questionnaire for pilot study was developed according to theWHO recommendations for minimal information about medicationsto the patient. All of participated patients (N = 36) were fromUrology department of Clinics of Kaunas Medicine University. Every of them had to take some antibiotics for treatment or for prophylaxisat home. For most of the patients it was a short-time therapy (from 5to 7 days). By the end of the treatment those patients were questionedat home about usage of antibiotics; during the visit, there werecounted aken/untaken pills of prescribed antibiotics.Current questionnaire was made of two parts: one part is from previousquestionnaire made according the WHO recommendations forminimal information about medications to the patient, secondpart was made from already verified questionnaires as MoriskyMedication Adherence Scale, ASK-20 questionnaire and SF-12questionnaire. We are going to question about 200 patients in this survey.Main outcome measures Data were analyzed statistically bydescriptive and comparative statistic analysis by parameter of Pearson’s chi square (statistically significant result was when chi square[4, P\0.05).Results In pilot study there were 31% of patients who failed to comply with prescribed antibiotic therapy. Several statistically significantrisk factors of non-compliance were identified representing both educational and social constrains, most important ones—lack of knowledge about using medications
and maximal dose and better knowledge about contraindications; negligence of self-medication with prescription NSAIDs; frequent usage of herbal medications etc. Conclusions Now further investigations are doing to confirm and verify results of pilot study. Primary data of this research will be analyzed and presented during the conference.