Adherence to treatment guidelines in a university hospital: Exploration of facts and factors

The present study was conducted to evaluate the adherence to treatment guidelines in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. The study assessed the awareness of prescribers, adherence to treatment guidelines and reasons for non-adherence. A questionnaire survey was conducted followed by a retrospective medical review and in-depth interview. The study revealed that 60.9% of key prescribers are aware of Treatment Guidelines. In pediatric patients, adherence was highest in neonatal sepsis (71.7%) and lowest in bronchial asthma (3.3%) and pneumonia (3.3%). In adult patients, adherence was highest in rheumatoid arthritis (100%) and lowest in bronchial asthma (13.3%). Adherence was 29.5% and 52.7% in pediatric and adult patients respectively and difference was highly significant (p<0.001). The adherence was highest with International Guideline (100%), followed by institutional Guideline (71.7%) and National Guideline (22.5%). There is significant variation in extent of adherence in different age group of patients, diseases and categories of guidelines

Drug used pattern by self-medication among the RT-PCR positive health workers in Dhaka city

Background: To date there is no effective treatment against COVID-19. Self-medication played one of the major modes of treatment among general population as well as the health workers during this pandemic. Studying the pattern of self-medication among the health care workers (HCWs) may indicate their knowledge and skills towards rational use of medicines. The aim of the study was to assess the pattern self-medication among the COVID-19 affected HCWs.Methods: This cross-sectional survey assessed the pattern of drug used by self-medication among the health workers who were RT-PCR positive in context to Bangladesh.Results: A total of 267 HCWs data were collected. Most of the HCWs were in middle age group between 31-40 years with the mean age of 32.2±5.2. Doctors (83.9%) enrolled five times more than the nurses (16.1%). Most of the HCWs (60.3%) commenced medications just after appearance of symptoms and 27.0% went for the RT-PCR testing. Only 3.7% went to health care facilities for treatment. More than sixty percent of the respondents took medication by themselves just after start the symptoms, 19 (33.7%) took advised from the specialists and attended at health facilities 2.6%. Most of the patients (42.7%) used azithromycin as antimicrobial agent. Paracetamol was the most used drug among the participants (78.65%) followed by antihistamines (67.79%). Average number of drugs used by patients 3.1% and percentage of antibiotics per patients 42.6%.Conclusions: The prescribing practice of antibiotics shows deviation from the standard recommendation. Awareness regarding essentials drug list should be needed.