Private pharmacies in Hanoi, Vietnam - Wiley Online Library

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Tropical Medicine and International Health volume 7 no 9 pp 803–810 september 2002

Private pharmacies in Hanoi, Vietnam: a randomized trial of a 2-year multi-component intervention on knowledge and stated practice regarding ARI, STD and antibiotic/steroid requests J. Chalker1, N. T. K. Chuc2, T. Falkenberg3 and G. Tomson3 1 Management Sciences for Health, Arlington, VA, USA 2 Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi Vietnam 3 Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Summary

objectives To assess the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention on knowledge and reported practice amongst staff working in private pharmacies in Hanoi regarding four conditions: urethral discharge [sexually transmitted diseases (STD)], acute respiratory infection (ARI), and non-prescription requests for antibiotics and steroids. method Randomized controlled trial with staff working in 22 matched pair intervention and control private pharmacies who were administered a semistructured questionnaire on the four conditions before and 4 months after the interventions. The interventions focused on the four conditions and were in sequence (i) regulations enforcement; (ii) face-to-face education and (iii) peer influence. Outcome measures were knowledge and reported change in practice for correct management of tracer conditions. results The intervention/control-pairs (22 after drop-outs) were analysed pre- and post-intervention using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. STD: More drug sellers stated they would ask about the health of the partner (P ¼ 0.03) and more said they would advise condom use (P ¼ 0.01) and partner notification (P ¼ 0.04). ARI: More drug sellers stated they would ask questions regarding fever (P ¼ 0.01), fewer would give antibiotics (P ¼ 0.02) and more would give traditional medicines (P ¼ 0.03). Antibiotics request: Fewer said they would sell a few capsules of cefalexin without a prescription (P ¼ 0.02). Steroid requests: No statistical difference was seen in the numbers who said they would sell steroids without a prescription as numbers declined in both intervention and control groups (P ¼ 0.12). conclusion The three interventions in series over 17 months were effective in changing the knowledge and reported practice of drug sellers in Hanoi. keywords private pharmacy, pharmacy staff knowledge, pharmacy staff reported practice, multi-component intervention, STD, ARI, antibiotics, steroids, Vietnam correspondence John Chalker, Management Sciences for Health, Suite 400, 4301 N Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1627, USA. Fax: +1-703-248-1635; E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction With health sector reform drug sellers are often the first and only contact with health delivery services (Logan 1983; Cederlof & Tomson 1995; Goel et al. 1996). In Vietnam, more than 80% of people go directly to a drug seller when they become ill (Tangcharoensathien 1992; World Bank 1995). The Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) guidelines issued by WHO in 1996 attest to the importance of private pharmacies in primary health care. However, the quality of

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the treatment from private pharmacies is often very poor (Thamlikiktul 1988; Igun 1994; Chalker et al. 2000; Stenson et al. 2001a). This may be because the licensed pharmacist is rarely present, and an unqualified person works behind the counter (Kamat & Nichter 1998), or the pharmacist has a low level of knowledge, especially of rational drug use (Ross-Degnan et al. 1996). Cultural, social and economic factors all play a part (Madden et al. 1997). Vietnam legalized the private health sector in 1989 (Doi Moi). A study in 1994 showed that violations of pharma803

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ceutical regulations are common and enforcement of regulations is weak (Falkenberg et al. 2000). Antibiotics are often sold without a prescription (Chuc & Tomson 1999; Duong et al. 1997) and both knowledge and practice for the management of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) (Chalker et al. 2000) and respiratory infections (Chuc et al. 2001) are very poor. Interventions to promote better care with private practitioners in high income countries have shown that multifaceted strategies which increase provider knowledge have had some success in improving service quality (Brugha & Zwi 1998). Few studies exist in low and middle income countries and there is a need to evaluate combinations of strategies balancing incentives, controls and the education of providers, patients and communities (Brugha & Zwi 1998). Finding ways of achieving better pharmacy practice is essential. Semi-structured questionnaires presented by trained interviewers have been shown to assess knowledge and attitudes including reported practice more reliably than structured questionnaires (Stuart & Wiles 1997). Although stated practice tends to be better than actual practice, an improvement in stated practice shows an increased level of awareness of correct procedures (Adams et al. 1999). The aim of this study was to see if a multi-component intervention could change the knowledge and reported practice of the staff working in private pharmacies in Hanoi. The study is part of the ÔTowards Good Pharmacy Practice in Thailand and VietnamÕ Project.

Method Tracer conditions The four chosen tracer conditions of critical public health importance were (a) management of a STD (urethral discharge) in an adult man; (b) management of a simple upper respiratory tract infection (ARI) in a child < 5 years old with a mild cough; (c) a request for two to five capsules of an antibiotic (cefalexin) without a prescription; and (d) a request for steroids (prednisolone) without a prescription. The correct questioning, advice and treatment were agreed for each condition (Fig. 3). Selection of pharmacies There were 789 private pharmacies registered in the urban area of Hanoi, 641 outside a hospital and not mainly wholesalers. Thirty-four pairs of pharmacies were selected randomly from the 641. The pairs were formed according to the following matching criteria: turnover: high, medium or low according to district inspectors; whether the 804

pharmacist was the license holder or not; and whether they were situated close to a hospital or not. The pharmacies in the pairs were randomly allocated into the intervention or control group (Fig. 1). Questionnaire A semi-structured questionnaire (available upon request from JC) was developed to elicit the respondents’ knowledge and reported practice by describing what they would have done given a client complaining of such symptoms. The questionnaire contained open questions such as ÔHow would you deal with someone who came to you with a small child who is coughing?Õ If there was no response, the questioner would prompt with Ôwould you ask any questions?Õ or Ôwould you give any advice?Õ and record the answer as prompted. The questionnaire was piloted in other pharmacies and then administered to each person working in the intervention and control pharmacies on duty at the time of the visit. Interviews were conducted out of earshot of other staff working in a pharmacy. Four months after the last intervention we returned to both intervention and control pharmacies to repeat the questionnaire (Fig. 2). The interventions The three interventions were implemented sequentially over a 17-month period from May 1998 to September 1999. Each intervention lasted 3 months, with a gap of 4 months before the next intervention, and was designed in cooperation with pharmacists who have worked in private pharmacies as well as with the Health Authorities and the Pharmacy Association in Hanoi. Regulatory enforcement The first intervention focused on regulation of prescription only drugs, particularly the drugs related to tracer conditions in the study. Four inspectors of the Hanoi Health office were trained to cover these areas of inspection. In pairs they visited the intervention pharmacies twice a month apart. In addition to normal inspection procedures, they delivered the regulation about selling prescriptiononly drugs and then explained the regulation in more detail. A normal inspection would take place twice a year and not concentrate on these topics. Education Core research members with a local pharmacologist and two clinicians developed the pharmacy treatment guide-

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789 Pharmacies registered in Hanoi Excluded those in hospital grounds and those mainly wholesalers Leaving 641 Pharmacies Classified 1. Turnover; high, medium or low 2. Pharmacist present 3. Hospital vicinity 4 names of wards located in randomly ordered using excel random function 34 pharmacies chosen by systematic random sampling and 34 next in list that are matching and not in same ward chosen. 34 matched pairs Random allocation

34 Pharmacies

Original

34 Pharmacies

Intervention

assignment

Control

Baseline Questionnaire 5 dropouts during the study period of the three interventions over 17 months as one pharmacy in each pair closed. 29 remaining pairs

29 Intervention

Completed

29 controls

(33 Interviews)

interventions

(34 interviews) Questionnaire re-administered just before TET holiday 25 pharmacies in both Intervention and control open at time leaving

25 Intervention

25 Control

(27 Interviews)

(28 Interviews)

22 matched pairs

complete data for 22 of the 29 pairs

22 matched pairs analyzed throughout

Figure 1 Flow chart of selection process and criteria for intervention and control pharmacies.

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Intervention group Time

Control

In

RE

E

PI

In

Jan

May–

Dec 98–

Jul–

Feb

98

Jul 98

Feb 99

Sep 99

00

In

In

group

In: Interview with pharmacy staff pre and post interventions RE: Regulatory Enforcement intervention Figure 2 Experimental design with timing and sequence of interventions and interviews.

E: Education intervention PI: Peer Influence intervention

lines for the four tracer conditions (Fig. 3). Each intervention pharmacy was visited twice by two people for faceto-face education sessions with all staff present. Each session lasted about 45 min and included both written and verbal information. If customers came the session was interrupted until they had been served. The sessions focused on the importance of GPP and asking the right questions, giving the right advice and the right treatment in relation to the four tracer conditions. Peer influence The intervention pharmacies were geographically divided into five groups. The research group appointed one person in each group to be the leader, based on the experience gained during the educational intervention. A 1-day seminar on the importance of GPP including rational dispensing practice, targeting the four tracer conditions was held with the five group leaders and representatives of the Hanoi Pharmacy Association. The importance of peer influence to improve practice among private pharmacy staff was emphasized. Following this seminar, the five group leaders held meetings with the staff of the intervention pharmacies on the same issues. After the meetings they took notes of every case of patients with the above conditions that visited them while working in their shops. They then held monthly meetings (three times) to review what had been done in relation to these conditions by each pharmacy.

answered no the answer was coded as 1 for yes or 0 for no. If one answered yes and one answered no then the answer was coded as 0.5. Positive answers after a prompt were recorded as yes. A matching pair was only analysed if there were answers for the matching pairs in the intervention and control groups before and after the interventions. The method of summary statistics comparing the differences between pre- and postintervention and the control was used to assess whether the interventions had had a significant effect (Diggle et al. 1994). Assuming approximately continuous and symmetric data, the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used (software SPSS version 11). Ethical approval The study had ethical approval from the Ministry of Health in Vietnam and the Karolinska Institute. It was conducted in collaboration with the Hanoi Provincial Health Bureau and the Pharmacy Association. Results In the course of the study, four pharmacies closed and one refused to take part in the third intervention. No postintervention interviews were taken from four intervention and four control pharmacies as they were closed early before the Vietnamese New Year (TET) holidays. These gave 22 matched pairs (Fig. 1). The results, presented by pharmacy, are summarized in Table 1.

Data analysis The results were coded and entered into a computer using EPI INFO version 6. The data was analysed on the pharmacy level, so that if there were two interviews in a pharmacy, if both interviewees answered yes or both 806

Sexually transmitted disease After the three interventions significantly more drug sellers would ask about the health of the partner (P ¼ 0.03) and advise on condom use (P ¼ 0.01) and partner notification

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STD (Urethral discharge) Questions To ask about recent sexual activity To ask about the health of the partner Advice To use condoms For the patient’s partner to also seek treatment Treatment The legally correct treatment is to suggest that they go to see a doctor at the hospital or health centre. However if the national guidelines for treatment by a doctor were to be followed then the syndromic approach would ensure treatment for Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea. This would be Ciprofloxacine (500 mg, one dose) or Perfloxacin (400 mg * 2 tablet, one dose) for gonorrhoea and doxycycline (100 mg twice a day for 7 days) or tetracycline (500 mg 4 times a day for 7 days) for Chlamydia. ARI Questions: Does the child have difficulty with breathing or a temperature Advice: If the child develops difficulty with breathing or a temperature to take the child to a doctor Treatment: Upper Respiratory Tract Infection is not dangerous, and no specific treatment is necessary. General treatment for children might include treatment of symptoms of headache and nasal obstruction. Asking for two capsules of an antibiotic Questions Why Advice Should not use antibiotics for such a short course, and need a prescription Treatment The drug seller should not sell a few capsules of cefalexin

Figure 3 Correct management.

Asking for steroids Questions Why Advice Should not buy without a prescription. If you think you need steroids you should go to a doctor because steroids have a lot of side effects Treatment The drug seller shouldn't sell prednisolone as this is a prescription only drug, but could sell non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs instead.

(P ¼ 0.04). (Table 1). There is no statistical difference between the number in the intervention group who say they would sell drugs after the intervention package and controls (P ¼ 0.73). But eight (36%) of the intervention group say they would give a treatment which is syndromically correct post-intervention vs. none in the controls. Because of the small number of matched pairs who both treated before and after this is not significant. Acute respiratory infection After the interventions significantly more drug sellers in the intervention group say they would ask questions about

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fever (P ¼ 0.01) (Table 1). However, the increase in asking about the quality of the breathing is not significant (P ¼ 0.10). Significantly fewer of the post-intervention group would give antibiotics (P ¼ 0.02) and more would give traditional medicines (P ¼ 0.03). Antibiotic requests without prescription Significantly fewer of the intervention group would sell antibiotics without a prescription (P ¼ 0.02). More intervention interviewees gave as reasons: Ôthe capsules would not be effectiveÕ, 13 (59%) compared with five (23%) controls; Ôthis practice would help to cause the develop-

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Table 1 Knowledge and reported management Baseline

Number pharmacies (A) Urethral discharge Questions Sexual activity Health of partner Advice Condom use Partner notification Treatment Sell drugs Correct treatment (B) Simple upper respiratory Questions About breathing About fever Treatment Antibiotics Traditional medicine

Post-interventions

Intervention pharmacies

Control pharmacies

Intervention pharmacies

Control pharmacies

22

22

22

22

Wilcoxon signed rank test* ÔPÕ value (for 22 matched pairs)**

8.5 (39) 1 (5)

4 (18) 2 (9)

14.5 (66) 7.5 (34)

9.5 (43) 2 (9)

0.80 0.03

6 (27) 2 (9)

3 (14) 0 (0)

13.5 (61) 9.5 (43)

0 (0) 1 (5)

0.01 0.04

7.5 (34) 0 (0)

5.5 (25) 0 (0)

15.5 (70) 8 (36)

12.5 (57) 0 (0)

0.73 –

12 (55) 16.5 (75)

16 (73) 16.5 (75)

8.5 (39) 9.5 (43)

0.10 0.01

2.5 (11) 3 (14)

2 (9) 12.5 (57)

8 (36) 5 (23)

0.02 0.03

4.5 (20)

13.5 (61)

0.02

3 (14)

0.12

infection 11 (50) 14 (64) 3.5 (16) 1 (5)

(C) Sell cefalexin with no prescription Sell antibiotics 12.5 (57)

10 (45)

(D) Sell steroids with no prescription Sell steroids 10.5 (48)

7 (32)

0 (0)

The numbers here are by pharmacy. If more than one interview was conducted in a pharmacy, for each question if both said yes it was recorded as yes (1), if both said no it was recorded as no (0), if they disagreed it was recorded as 0.5. The values in parenthesis are in percentages. * The test is a Wilcoxon signed rank test (matched pairs difference of differences between pre- and post- between intervention and control). ** ÔPÕ value (exact two sided) difference between matched pairs.

ment of resistanceÕ, 12 (55%) compared with two (9%) controls; and Ôthe client has no prescriptionÕ 10 (45%) compared with three (14%) controls. However these only comprised a few matched pairs and the changes were not significant. Steroid requests without a prescription There is no significant change between intervention and control in selling steroids without a prescription (P ¼ 0.12), partly because there was a marked reduction in both intervention and control groups. The most common reason for not selling them in the post-intervention group was because of the regulations [18.5 (84%) compared with 8.5 (39%)] in the controls which was not significant when matched pairs were analysed.

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Discussion This study, to our knowledge, is the first multi-intervention experiment in the private pharmacy sector in a low income country and reports important changes in staff knowledge and stated practices. We are aware that there is an important potential difference between stated and actual practice. Significantly more drug sellers stated that they would ask questions about partner health and give advice on condom use and partner notification, pre-requisites for STD control. For an uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection in a child, more interviewees learnt to ask questions regarding fever and to treat with non-antibiotics. Fewer drug sellers said they would sell a few antibiotic capsules without prescription, which could contribute to containing the spread of antimicrobial resistance (Larsson

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J. Chalker et al. Private pharmacies in Hanoi

et al. 2000; Chalker 2001) and decreasing the side-effects from unnecessary drugs. Failure to interview people from four intervention and four control pharmacies after the interventions may have caused a bias in results, but this is unlikely because of the equivalent numbers between intervention and control. The unit for this analysis and change shown is by pharmacy. In the second round of questionnaires only 54% of the intervention group interviewees and 36% of the control group participants had been interviewed before. This may have been because of the staff turnover or different people working on different days of the week. As for the public sector health facilities we hypothesized that drug use would be more similar within facilities (WHO/DAP 1993) and that the interventions would diffuse through the pharmacy. This study was a controlled trial over a 17-month period. The stringency in the design means that confidence can be placed on the differences found. The three intervention design here can be compared with the single face-to-face educational intervention of 2 h once in Kenya and twice in Indonesia which proved effective at least in the short term (Ross-Degnan et al. 1996). One-time training with little supervision was found to be inadequate in Niger (Wouters 1995). Enforcing regulations has led to better pharmacy practice in Laos (Stenson et al. 2001b). In Ghana with an education-only intervention, correct syndromic drug provision for urethral discharge also improved in the short-term but remained relatively low (Adu-Sarkodie et al. 2000). In this trial the innovative interventions combining regulatory enforcement, face-toface education and strengthening peer influence is in line with recommendations (Brugha & Zwi 1998). The questionnaire was open-format with questions such as ÔWhat would you do in this situation?Õ to explore the drug sellers thinking. This methodology is less leading than structured questionnaires or multiple-choice questions, and therefore probably reflects practice more closely (Stuart & Wiles 1997). Some studies which interviewed drug sellers in a more structured manner and also observed their behaviour by using the surrogate client method (SCM) and then compared the results (Ross-Degnan et al. 1996) found that the actual behaviour is worse than that claimed by the drug seller during interview. The format of our participatory education and the peer influence interventions meant that drug-sellers actually performed improved practices during these interventions. A study in Sweden (Diwan et al. 1997) hypothesizes that such participatory improvement in performance lead to an improvement of knowledge and attitudes which in turn leads to improved practice when not observed. In this research only change of reported behaviour has been recorded so that the reality of actual behaviour change is speculative. But positive changes in

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reported practice reflect improved knowledge which is in itself an important determinant of later behaviour change. Major criteria of GPP are to put the client’s interest first and to promote rational use of drugs (WHO 1996). The private pharmacy is a business dependent on profit (Cederlof & Tomson 1995). In the STD group, although illegal without a prescription, more stated they would sell the correct treatment (this was not statistically significant due to the small number of matched pairs selling drugs). STD treatment is relatively expensive, indicating that where there is a positive financial incentive the effects could be expected to be greatest. For ARI there was a stated improvement in not selling antibiotics, matched by a reported increase in selling traditional medicine, maintaining profitability. During the peer influence meetings, some pharmacists stated that initially they had not wanted to ask questions and give advice to their clients. However, after the interventions they understood that asking and advising and even sometimes advising not to use drugs built up their reputation to the public, thereby increasing their status and turnover. These observations show that simple profit is not the only driving force. The interventions were apposite because regulatory enforcement is often weak in low income countries and had previously been found to be so in Vietnam (Falkenberg et al. 2000). In the absence of effective regulatory mechanisms in the private sector, an increased role of professional societies and peer influence is one of the few options available. Such an approach is feasibly sustainable because in Vietnam, Provincial Health Authorities and the Pharmacy Association have the capacity to promote and carry out these interventions. The cost for the three interventions was approximately 5700 USD for 30 pharmacies which is less than 200 USD/pharmacy. This is an achievable target for most professional societies or donors. We have shown that the intervention package was effective in improving knowledge and reported practice. Now the most effective intervention needs to be explored on actual practice. If the drug sellers are going to follow GPP and effectively adopt their de facto role as primary care providers, they need to take better care of their clients. Acknowledgements We dedicate this article to the memory of Prof. N.T. Do from the College of Pharmacy in Hanoi, who co-ordinated the activity in Hanoi, and played an active part and in the design and implementation of the research. The project was financially supported by a European Union grant (number ERB3514PL950674) and the WHO Drug Action Programme. Collaborating institutions were the Karolinska Institute, the London School of Hygiene 809

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and Tropical Medicine, The College of Pharmacy, the Centre for Social Science in Health in Hanoi and Dr Sauwakon Ratanawijitrasin, the national coordinators at the Health System Research Institute in Bangkok. We also acknowledge Dr D.L. Huong for her major role in the development of the questionnaire and Max Petzold for statistical advice. We thank all participating pharmacies as well as the Health Bureau of Hanoi and the Hanoi Pharmacy Association. References Adams AS, Soumerai SB, Lomas J & Ross-Degnan (1999) Evidence of self-report bias in assessing adherence to guidelines. International Journal of Quality of Health Care 11, 187–192. Adu-Sarkodie Y, Steiner MJ, Attafuah J & Tweedy K (2000) Syndromic management of urethral discharge in Ghanaian pharmacies. Sexually Transmitted Infections 76, 439–442. Brugha R & Zwi A (1998) Improving the quality of private sector delivery of public health services: challenges and strategies. Health Policy and Planning 13, 107–120. Cederlof C & Tomson G (1995) Private pharmacies and health sector reform in developing countries. Professional and commercial highlights. Journal of Social and Administrative Pharmacy 12, 101–111. Chalker J (2001) Improving antibiotic prescribing in Hai Phong Province, Vietnam. The ÔAntibiotic DoseÕ indicator. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 79, 313–320. Chalker J, Chuc NT, Falkenberg T, Do NT & Tomson G (2000) STD management by private pharmacies in Hanoi: practice and knowledge of drug sellers. Sexually Transmitted Infections 76, 299–302. Chuc NT & Tomson G (1999) ÔDoi moiÕ and private pharmacies: a case study on dispensing and financing issues in Hanoi, Vietnam. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 55, 325–332. Chuc NT, Larsson M, Falkenberg T, Do NT, Binh NT & Tomson G (2001) Management of childhood acute respiratory infections at private pharmacies in Vietnam. Annals of Pharmacotherapy 35, 1283–1288. Diggle P, Liang K & Zeger S (1994) Analysis of Longitudinal Data. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Diwan V, Sachs L & Wahlstrom R (1997) Practice-KnowledgeAttitude-Practice: an explorative study of information in primary care. Social Science and Medicine 44, 1221–1228. Duong Van D, Binns C & Van Le T (1997) Availability of antibiotics as over-the-counter drugs in pharmacies: a threat to public health in Vietnam. Tropical Medicine and International Health 2, 1133–1139. Falkenberg T, Binh NT, Larsson M, Do NT & Tomson G (2000) Pharmaceutical sector in transition-A cross-sectional study in Vietnam. South East Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 31, 1–8.

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