Evaluación del uso racional de antibióticos en cadenas de farmacias comunitarias de la ciudad de Caluma, Ecuador

Abstract

The main objective of this research study was to evaluate the rational use of antibiotics in pharmacy chains of the community, in the city of Caluma. The study was carried out through a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of all users who went to pharmacies requesting antibiotics with and without a prescription during the period May- July 2022. For the collection of information, a data matrix was used, and a checklist to evaluate the dispensing process. Also, surveys were applied to users who purchased antimicrobials. As a result, a total of 36,581 dispensations were obtained, of which 7,207 medications were dispensed under prescription and 29,374 without prescription. In addition, the most requested group of antibiotics were beta-lactams with 45.67%, highlighting amoxicillin with 13.97%, and the dispensations and cephalexin with 11.48%, however, the most dispensed antibiotic was chloramphenicol with 21.68%. Regarding the dispensing process, 20% compliance was obtained in the parameters of the reception and validation of the prescriptions, 0% in the selection of medications, 100% in the medication record, and 20% in the dispensing of antibiotics to the patients. In the third phase of the evaluation of errors in medical prescriptions, 7.07% of mistakes were obtained due to illegible prescriptions, 24.66% due to omission of patient data, 42.60% due to omission of drug data, and 25, 67% due to the absence of prescriber data such as a signature or the seal. It is concluded that there was a high rate of self-medication in community pharmacies, with 80.29% of antibiotics dispensed without a prescription, due to the easy access to these drugs in the local pharmacies. It is recommended to train salespeople to promote the rational use of antimicrobials in order to avoid the generation of bacterial resistance.