Factors that influence irrational prescribing in public health facilities in Temeke municipality, Dar-es-Salaam region, Tanzania.

Abstract

This study focused on "Factors that influence irrational prescribing in public health facilities in Temeke Municipality, Dar es Salaam" The study was conducted in a way that the findings would help the Council Health Management Team to improve prescribing practices in public facilities. Previous researches do not provide enough information on factors that could influence irrational prescribing in public health facilities. A total of twelve out of twenty one public health facilities in the municipality were selected and studied. The public health facilities in the study were one hospital, one health centre and ten dispensaries. Factors that were studied included lack of training, lack of printed material lake guidelines, clinical experiences, misleading promotional activities, lack of time due to patients overload and lack of monitoring system. The study findings show that majority of the studied prescribers 87 (96.7%) were aware of the existence of the sexually transmitted infections guidelines. Most of them have attended training on sexually transmitted infections. But, only 37 (41.1 %) were found to posses the guidelines that were issued by the Ministry of Health. All the studied prescribers were knowledgeable of the sexually transmitted infections drugs but a high frequency of incorrect prescriptions was observed suggesting that majority of them were not using the guidelines. It is concluded that although training is useful but still there is no improvement in management of the sexually transmitted infections. These results emphasize the need to improve monitoring and supervision. Availability and distribution of the guidelines should go hands in hand with the investigation of prescribing pattern.