Effects of Promoting Rational Drug Use in Community: Model of Thonghlang Community, Ranong Province

Abstract

Background: The rational use of medication is to provide the patient with the appropriate medication needed to treat the underlying illness at the appropriate dosage and duration. However, excessive drug usage has resulted in several fatalities around the globe. In Thailand, the drug is still used without any medical indication and overused, resulting in illness and death. Therefore, this study was to promote people and grocers in the community and study the rational medicine used in the area of Ranong province.

Objective: To study the effect of rational drug use activities on knowledge and behaviour of people in Thonghlang Community, Ban Na Sub-district, Kapoe District, Ranong Province.

Methods: This was an action research study in the area of Village Moo 3, Ban Na Sub-district, Kapoe District, Ranong Province,  using five processes as follows: meeting of network partners to impose social measures; going to visit homes and grocery stores; training; campaign to educate; and lesson learning. Then, explore the knowledge and behaviour of a sample of 200 subjects aged 16 years and over who participated in the activities throughout the project by simple randomization and drawing. There were 200 samples at a 95% confidence level. Besides, it included visiting homes by purposive sampling of 98 households and surveying the population of all grocery stores in the area (4 stores). The correlation was analyzed before and after the activity using paired sample t-test. The significance was determined at p-value = 0.05

Results: The results of promoting rational drug use in the community found that the majority of the sample population were female, 52.50%, aged 41 years and over, 71.50%, most had primary education, 66.00 %, worked as farmers, 81.50%, and 24.50% had congenital disease. When studying the knowledge of rational drug consumption, it was found that the sample group had a statistically significant increase at p<0.05 from a moderate 6.12 to the highest level, which was 8.91 points, from a full score of 10. The topics that 96.00 % of the sample group had the most accurate knowledge of after the campaign were: when they took steroid-containing drugs continuously, it caused side effects and could be fatal; knowledge of a set of pills that claimed properties that could cure a variety of diseases was often mixed with steroids; and the topic of too much antibiotic use may be harmed by drug allergy and cause drug resistance, except for 63.00% of those who had knowledge that antibiotics can't cure viral or fungal infections, which was the topic with the lowest score. In addition, it was found that the sample group had a statistically significant increase in rational drug consumption behaviour at a very good level (p-value<0.05), with a score increasing from 34.61 to 36.56 from a full score of 40. The activities in each item were found to be at a very good level. When considering a survey of having high-risk drugs in 98 households, it was found that they had the risk drugs for the first time at 12.24% and the second time at 0.00%, while at the grocery store, it was found that 50.0% of drugs were sold illegally for the first time but not the second time.

Conclusion: The results of promoting rational drug use in the community by using five processes resulted in people having the correct knowledge at a p-value of 0.05; there was a statistically significant increase in rational drug consumption behaviour. No risk group drugs were found in the household and there was no selling of illegal drugs in community grocery stores. Hence, the provincial public health offices can adopt the model of promoting rational drug use of the Thonghlang community to be a role model for rational drug use promotion activities in their communities. In addition, the next research should select the samples with risk drug use problem for further in-depth study.