Effects of Telephone Counseling in Patient Taking Antibiotics

Main Article Content

Kusawadee Maluangnon
Virat Maluangnon
Nisana Thanapunpanit
Purita Hanprasankij
Aratchaporn Kanithatat

Abstract

            Introduction: Patients’ adherence to antibiotics use is a major concern in terms of the success of the infection treatment as well as the antibiotics resistance. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the telephone counseling in patient taking antibiotics in terms of 1) patients’ adherence to antibiotics 2) relative success rate. Method: A randomized controlled trial was performed between July and September, 2012.  The study samples were patients taking antibiotics that dispensed from a health service center, Rangsit University. One hundred forty eight cases were randomly assigned into the group of control (74) and the treatment group (74). The counseling process, using telephone call during the treatment course of antibiotics, was provided to the treatment group. All data, from both groups, were collected by telephone call at the end of their antibiotics treatment course. Percentage of patients’ adherence and success ratio were compared between treatment and control group.  Results: At the end of the study, there were 70 and 64 samples remained in the control and the study group, respectively. The result showed that more than 65 percent of the infections were upper respiratory tract infection that required antibiotics for 7 days.  The treatment group showed higher the percentage of patients’ adherence than the control group with the statistical significance (93.0±17.2 , 80.0±20.1, p<0.001, respectively).  Success ratio of the treatment group was 1.07 (95%CI=0.93-1.24).  Conclusion: Telephone counseling in patient taking antibiotics could enhance the patients’ adherence to the antibiotics treatment.

Article Details

Section
Pharmaceutical Practice

References

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