Abstract

IMPACT OF PATIENT COUNSELLING ON PATIENT ADHERENCE WITH ANTIBIOTIC DRUGS: AN INDIAN SURVEY

Hemant Bareth, Keshav Sharma* and Ranjeet Kumar

ABSTRACT

Background: Antibiotic drugs are widely prescribed drugs in current clinical setting. Patient adherence to antibiotics is one of the main factors in efficacy of antibiotic therapy. Objective: In this study, we tried to investigate the factors that affect the patient adherence to antibiotic therapy in an Indian teaching hospital to increase the patient adherence and to reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics by patients with the help of patient counselling. Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among patients who were prescribed antibiotic drugs orally. Patient counselling was done on the basis of adherence level of patients. Conclusion: Many factors was found in this study which were directly associated with the patient adherence to antibiotictherapy, including lack of knowledge about drug, financial condition, age, area, and gender. Study shows that the proper patient counselling can improve the adherence rate in patients.

Keywords: Adherence, Questionnaire, patient counselling.