engleski

Seniority of primary care physicians is associated with positive attitudes toward regular pharmacotherapy control habits

Introduction: Drug prescription represents one of the most common activities in the daily work of primary care physician (PCP). Various data showed that outpatient drug consumption in Croatia makes up to 62.5% of total drug consumption, making PCP's role even more important. The Goal: The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes and practices of PCPs regarding the pharmacotherapy control habits. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study involving 195 licensed PCP's in Croatia. The self-assessment survey questionnaire evaluated attitudes of PCP's regarding side effects, drug interactions and their ability to decide toward rational pharmacotherapy habits. Mann-Whitney-U or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. P-values of <0.05 were considered significant. Results: The study has demonstrated that the doctors of other specializations, working as PCP's, as well as younger respondents who have up to 4 years of work experience, significantly disagree with the claims that they are capable of prescribing drugs independently, based only on their knowledge (P<0.05). Doctors who possess less work experience showed a much greater necessity for education on rational pharmacotherapy as opposed to doctors with more working experience (P<0.05). However, almost 40% of respondents do not attend courses about rational pharmacotherapy. Conclusion: As the greatest barrier to not attending educational courses PCP's cited lack of information about such courses and a lack of time. From the aspect of age and experience younger respondents felt less able to independently prescribe drugs. One of the ways to improve the PCP's work is to better inform physicians about such courses.

primary care physician, pharmacovigilance, attitudes

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