Prescribing Patterns for Acute Respiratory Infections in Children in Primary Health Care Centers, Makkah Al Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia
- DOI
- 10.2991/j.jegh.2017.10.007How to use a DOI?
- Abstract
Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a major public health problem and one of the commonest reasons for visiting primary health care centers (PHC). In developing countries, seventy-five percent of the cases are treated with antibiotics, although the majority are caused by viral infection. Our aim was to observe the pattern of physician practices with respect to ARI, in comparison to WHO protocols and to provide recommendations for health promotion enhancement. The study was conducted in Makkah PHC centers, for 2 months. A total 14 PHC centers were randomly selected. And 908 prescriptions were obtained randomly from general practitioners (GP) and analyzed. We found that males were 522 and females were and 386. Weights were not recorded in 224 (24.7%) cases. In 87 cases (9.6%) no diagnosis was recorded. In 515 (62.34%) of cases, antibiotics were prescribed; most of these cases were of simple common cold, with antibiotics not recommended. To conclude, many physicians in Makkah are not following the WHO guidelines for Acute Respiratory Infection. Educational health programs should be conducted to sensitize the physicians regarding the appropriate method of diagnosis and rational use of antibiotics.
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- © 2018 Atlantis Press International B.V.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0/).
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TY - JOUR AU - M.H. Shaheen AU - M.I. Siddiqui AU - H.A. Jokhdar AU - A. Hassan-Hussein AU - M.A. Garout AU - S.M. Hafiz AU - M.M. Alshareef AU - A.M. Falemban AU - A.A. Neveen AU - A.A. Nermeen PY - 2018 DA - 2018/12/31 TI - Prescribing Patterns for Acute Respiratory Infections in Children in Primary Health Care Centers, Makkah Al Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia JO - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health SP - 149 EP - 153 VL - 8 IS - 3-4 SN - 2210-6014 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/j.jegh.2017.10.007 DO - 10.2991/j.jegh.2017.10.007 ID - Shaheen2018 ER -