Evaluation of attitudes of health care professionals towards the use of corticosteroids in the Republic of Kosovo

Irrational use of drugs/medicinal productsremains a major issue facing most health systems across the world, especially the developing countries with weak health systems, where mechanisms for routine monitoring of drug productuse are often not well developed or are at times non-existent. In order to collect preliminary data on real-life attitudes, beliefs and perceptions about the treatment with corticosteroid drugs (CSs), a representative sample of 30caregivers (medical doctors from different specialty) from Republic of Kosovo, was assessed during the period of March to April in 2017, where most of the surveyed (93.30%) were of Albanian nationality. More than 86% of all surveyed respondents confirmed that they prescribed CSs in the last year. According to the answers of the questionnaire, 33.33% of respondents prescribed 1 to 5 CSs in the last month, 23.33% of respondents prescribed5 to 10 CSs and 26.67% more than 15 CSs, while 16.67% not even once. The question concerning the attitudes on CSs treatment was answered as follows: 16.67% of all respondents had negative attitude on CSs treatment, 60% of the respondents expressed the opposite opinion, and the other 23.33% of respondents could not give a definite answer. Data from the separate analyses performed to determine the most common indication showed that allergy was the indication the CSs were mostly prescribed for (70%). Of the total CSs prescribed, obtained results revealed that low potency CSs (methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, prednisolone) were often prescribed (70%), while the most commonly prescribed dosage forms were topical steroids, followed by the inhalation formulations and oral dosage forms (33.33%). Keywords: corticosteroids, irrational use, prescription, survey, corticophobia

Patients’ opinion and perception survey of community pharmacists in Republic of Macedonia

Over the past decade, numerous changes have taken place across the community pharmacy (CP) sector in the Republic of Macedonia (RM). The overall aim of this study is to analyze patients` perception and opinion regarding the Community pharmacy sector and its recognizable role in health care system in RM. Additionally, this study focusses on factors affecting patients` choice of the certain CP and perception of the quality of the CP premises. The survey covered randomly selected patients of those visiting community pharmacies in all 8 regions of the country. An anonymous semi-open questionnaire consisting of 21 items was structured, which covered three main groups of questions related to: socio-demographic factors of the respondents, reasons influencing respondents` choice of the certain CP and respondents’ opinion and impressions of community pharmacists` expertise and quality of offered services in CP settings. The obtained results have confirmed that 69.82% of respondents showed loyalty to the same CP. These findings were supported by tree main reasons: (1) the pharmacist and professional staff working in certain CP (74.19%), (2) CP keeps up a satisfactory supply (69.68%) and (3) CP is situated in a convenient location (61.94%). The overall patients’ perception of elements of pharmaceutical care services provided in CP was that they are on a high level (above 80%). Despite the encouraging results obtained, this study can serve as a core element for continuous monitoring and quality improvement of the national CPs network in near future. Keywords: community pharmacists, pharmaceutical care, patients’ opinion and perception