OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of the correct use of a group of oral drugs, which must keep the integrity of their pharmaceutical pattern at the moment of taking them, by the population who uses them. DESIGN: A transversal and descriptive study based on observation, by means of a questionnaire, which evaluated how the interviewees used the drugs. SETTING: Twenty-eight communal chemists. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who came up to the chemist to get drugs included in the study. MEASURES AND RESULTS: 612 questionnaires were evaluated. It was detected that the 7% (95% CI, 5.1-9.2) of the interviewees chewed or grinded the delayed release drugs or with enteric cover, and the 72% (95% CI, 68.7-75.8) made at least one mistake when using these drugs. The most frequent errors were related to the conservation and the intake of the drug related to the food. No relation between the reading of the patient information leaflet and the correct use of these drugs has been observed. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the high percentage of interviewees who use drugs incorrectly, we believe that every health professional should provide the drug users with oral and written information on how to handle such drugs, specifically emphasizing how to use them and where to keep them.
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of the correct use of a group of oral drugs, which must keep the integrity of their pharmaceutical pattern at the moment of taking them, by the population who uses them. DESIGN: A transversal and descriptive study based on observation, by means of a questionnaire, which evaluated how the interviewees used the drugs. SETTING: Twenty-eight communal chemists. PARTICIPANTS: Patients who came up to the chemist to get drugs included in the study. MEASURES AND RESULTS: 612 questionnaires were evaluated. It was detected that the 7% (95% CI, 5.1-9.2) of the interviewees chewed or grinded the delayed release drugs or with enteric cover, and the 72% (95% CI, 68.7-75.8) made at least one mistake when using these drugs. The most frequent errors were related to the conservation and the intake of the drug related to the food. No relation between the reading of the patient information leaflet and the correct use of these drugs has been observed. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the high percentage of interviewees who use drugs incorrectly, we believe that every health professional should provide the drug users with oral and written information on how to handle such drugs, specifically emphasizing how to use them and where to keep them.