Understanding of pediatric antimicrobial prescriptions among health units in a southern brazil city

• Autor(a) principal: Menezes, Ana Paula Simões
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Domingues, Marlos Rodrigues, Baisch, Ana Luiza Muccillo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da FURG (RI FURG)
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.furg.br/handle/1/64
• topic: Understanding; Pediatric prescription; Antimicrobial

The aim of the study was to evaluate the understanding of the antimicrobial prescriptions by children’s accompaning adults, describing the medicine utilization profile among Health Units in a South Brazilian city. A cross-sectional study was carried out and its target was people accompanying children during consultations that resulted in antimicrobial prescription (n=209), from May to June, 2007. A score (4-12) was generated to evaluate the understanding based on correct and incorrect/unknown statements about the prescription. Understanding was considered adequate when the score was below 6.5. Schooling (p=0.05), income (p=0.03), skin color (p=0.007) of accompanying person and length of the visit in minutes (p=0.05) were associated to a better understanding of the prescription. Adequate understanding represented 58.9% of the prescriptions. The most prescribed antimicrobials were amoxicilin and the association Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole. The results point out to a need for standardization of written information and educational measures such as oral and written orientation to assure a better understanding of the prescriptions. We therefore assure a better understanding of the prescription, which helps the treatment to succeed, also avoiding the phenomena of microbic resistence.