Appropriateness of Community Pharmacists' Oral Rehydration Therapy Dispensing for Acute Diarrhea (ความเหมาะสมของการจ่ายผลิตภัณฑ์สารน้ำทดแทนสำหรับผู้ป่วยท้องร่วงเฉียบพลันของเภสัชกรในร้านยา)

Diarrhea is a leading cause of mortality in most developing countries. Such deaths can be prevented by appropriate treatment using oral rehydration therapy . There has been confusion in differentiating products recommended for treating/preventing dehydration caused by diarrhea and preparations with compositions that are designed for replacing water and salt losses during exercise, especially in the community pharmacy settings. The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate the appropriateness of the pharmacists in recommending oral rehydration therapy for patient with acute diarrhea, and (2) to understand the factors associated with their practice. This study was conducted on a stratified random sample of 60 pharmacists in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The study was divided into two phases: drug fishing to assess the appropriateness of pharmacists' oral rehydration recommendation from October to December 2002; and face-toface interviews with the pharmacists to elicit the correlating factors between January and February 2003. The results indicated that 61.7 percent of pharmacists inappropriately dispensed sport powder for acute diarrhea. When challenged, 75.9 percent of those correctly dispensed oral rehydration salts duly maintained their course of conduct. Fortunately, pharmacists' beha vior is presumably changeable by appropriate strategies, that is, a continuing education program.