A Survey on Drug Dispensing Patterns by Drug Retailers in Bangladesh

Abstract

The present survey was carried out to “Drug dispensing patterns by drug retailers in Bangladesh”. All data of this survey is collected from 435 pharmacies of 12 thanas of 5 districts by questionnaires method. This survey is carried out for observation of knowledge of drug retailers about actual causes, sign, symptoms & treatment pattern of following diseases are right site upper abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea & urinary tract infection. For right site upper abdominal pain only 7.6% retailers referred to doctors & 92.4% retailers prescribed drugs to relief pain. For fever 88.9% retailers prescribed antibiotics, 2.1% non antibiotic & 9.0% referred to doctors. For diarrhoea 89.0% retailers prescribed antibiotics, 8.5% non antibiotic & 2.5% referred to doctors. For UTIs 71.8% retailers prescribed antibiotics, 1.4% non antibiotic & 26.8% referred to doctors. 91.0% retailers think that causes of upper site abdominal pain are acidity, 3.4% liver infection & 5.5 %)don’t know about causes of upper site abdominal pain. For fever 39.3% has said fever may occurred by seasonal change, cold, pain, infection, mosquito & 47.8% said causes of fever is virus. Only 4.1% think that a cause of fever is bacteria & 8.7% don’t know about causes of fever. For diarrhoea 93.1% retailers said causes of diarrhoea are food poisoning, water, Cold & 5.1 % said diarrhoea may occurred by bacteria or virus & 1.8% don’t know about causes of diarrhea. For UTI 69.2% retailers assume that causes of UTIs are sexual relation, dirty, menstruation, masturbation & 5.5% said UTIs occurred through bacteria or virus & 25.5% don’t causes of UTIs. For the treatment of upper site abdominal pain 11.7% prescribe single drug, 80.7% prescribe more than one drug & 7.6% referred to doctors. For the treatment of fever prescribe 7.0% single drug, 54.0% prescribe more than one drug & 39.0% referred to doctors. For the treatment of diarrhoea prescribe only 0 .7% single drug, 88.3% prescribe more than one drug & 11.0% referred to doctors. For the treatment of UTIs prescribe 6.9% single drug, 66.9% prescribe more than one drug & 26.2% referred to doctors. Educational qualification of retailers those are involved to prescribe drugs against various diseases 20.7% SSC, 41.4% HSC, 19.1% Degree,5.3% Masters in arts, only 2.3% Paramedical & 1.8% Diploma in Pharmacy & others 8.73%. In conclusion, from the survey it has found that most of the retailers of Bangladesh have not actual knowledge about diseases, their primary causes & treatment.