Influence of the method of multi-intervention o­n the knowledge and practice ability of medicine sellers at private pharmacies in Hanoi

Nguyen Thi Kim Chuc

Doctor thesis in public health

Karolinska Institute, Sweden, 2002

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of multi-intervention method o­n the knowledge and practice ability of medicine sellers at private pharmacies in Hanoi.

Methods: 68 private pharmacies were chosen for the research. 4 situations were selected to assess the knowledge and practice ability of medicine sellers: treating a male patient for sexual transmitted diseases (STD); children under five years of age with acute respiratory infection; a customer buying prednisolon without prescription and a customer buying low-dosed cephalexin without prescription. Three intervention measures were carried out, including: reinforcing the regulations application, providing knowledge and colleague-education. Knowledge of the medicine sellers were tested using the method of role-play with a customer.

Findings: The knowledge and practice ability of medicine sellers was increased. For sexual transmitted diseases, the number of interviewees to answer with advice to use condoms increased, the number of customers having been advised to go for examination and the cases of correct treatment also increased. For acute respiratory infections, the number of interviewees to answer with questions about the increasing temperature symptom increased, and the number of people with the answer to sell antibiotics decreased. In reality, the number of cases to sell antibiotics decreased and the number of times to ask about breathing situation of patients increased. For the situations of customers buying prednisolon and cephalexin without prescription, the number of people not selling a few tablets of cephalexin increased and in reality, the medicine sellers reduced the selling of these two kinds of medicine and the number of times to ask about prescription increased.

Conclusion: The knowledge and practice ability of medicine sellers was increased after applying multi-intervention methods. This model should be widely applied for private pharmacies in the whole country.

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