Antibiotics Knowledge and Dispense Practice among Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors in Niger State, North Central Nigeria

Background: Inadequate knowledge and irrational dispense practice are serious Public Health challenges in Nigeria. This may increase financial burdens, risk of infection relapse and accelerate emergence and spread of the antibiotics resistance. Thus this may lead to complicated disease outcomes among individuals and families. There is no documented evidence on the Antibiotics knowledge and dispense practices among patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) in Niger State. This study therefore evaluated Antibiotics knowledge and dispense practices among PPMVs in the area.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed in this study. The study population comprises PPMVs in Niger State. A minimum sample size of 110 was calculated using Cochran’s formula n = Z2pq/d2. Respondents were selected using simple random sampling techniques. A pretested structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for data analysis.

Results: The Mean age of respondents is 35±2.4 years. Respondents had fair knowledge of antibiotics. About 70.9% of the PPMVs dispensed antibiotics wrongly for common cold, catarrh and flu while 60.9% used antibiotics to treat cough and sore throat. The majority of the PPMVs (73.6%) dispensed antibiotics without prescriptions while 58.2% indicated that patient request incomplete course of antibiotics over the counter.

Conclusions: There were fair knowledge on Antibiotics and some bad dispensing practices among PPMVs. To change the practice of antibiotics dispensing without prescription and indiscriminate use of antibiotics requires continue medical education of PPMVs on antibiotics rational use and enforcement of regulations.