This study aimed to evaluate the effects of pharmacist-led counseling on the rural parents’ knowledge and technique of oral antibiotic suspension reconstitution, storage, and dose measurement. This was a multicenter interventional study involved 330 parents from four government health clinics in Sik, Malaysia. A checklist and infographic handout were developed for the counseling purpose. A questionnaire was used to evaluate parents’ knowledge, and they were tasked with demonstrating their reconstitution and dose measurement techniques during the counseling session. The knowledge and technique were evaluated through scoring both before and after counseling sessions, and the comparison was performed using Wilcoxon signed rank test. The parents’ median score of reconstitution knowledge improved significantly (p < 0.001) from 5 (pre-counseling) to a perfect score of 7 (post-counseling). Meanwhile, the antibiotic storage knowledge showed a similar trend of significant improvement (p < 0.001) from a median of 2 to a perfect score of 3. Significant improvement (p < 0.001) was found in the reconstitution technique with the median score increased from 3 to a perfect score of 7. After the counseling, majority of parents (96.4%) performed the correct dose measurement technique as compared to 37.7% at pre-counseling. In conclusion, the pharmacist-led counseling guided with checklist and visual handout was effective.
Key words: pharmacist-led counselling, rural parents, oral antibiotic suspension, reconstitution, dose measurement
|
