Rational Drug Use: A Practice in Family Physicians

It is known that there are some problems about rational drug use which is important for health promotion and providing maximum benefit to patients and these problems are tried to be overcome with the support of service providers, stakeholders and government. The aim of this study is to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of family physicians towards rational drug use who are working in Erzincan center, districts and towns. Sample selection was not made in the research and the whole universe was tried to be reached. Family physicians who were on maternity leave, who were on annual leave and did not want to participate in the study were excluded from the scope of the study and in total 69 out of 82 family physicians working in the province were reached. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. As a result of the data obtained, it was found that 84.1% of family physicians received training on rational drug use. While 62.3% of family physicians stated that they prescribe only the drugs requested for chronic diseases, 17.4% stated that they prescribe all kinds of medicines requested by the patients, otherwise they had discussions with the patients. When the knowledge level of family physicians about drugs is examined, it is determined that they do not have information about drug interactions at a rate of 23.2%. In addition, when family physicians were informed about the drugs they wrote, it was found that 43.5% did not give information to the patients about the price of the drugs.