Abstract
Overuse of antibiotics for common, self-limited diseases such as upper respiratory infection (URI),
acute diarrhea and simple wound is rampant in Thai community pharmacies. A major reason is a lack of
confidence in the effects of non-antibiotic therapy on patient health and satisfaction. The study aims to compare health outcomes and patients satisfaction between the antibiotic-dispensed group and the non
antibiotic-dispensed group of patients afflicted with three targeted diseases: URI, acute diarrhea and simple
wound. Data collection was conducted in October 2012. Pharmacists from 97 community pharmacies
who attended the Antibiotics Smart Use training session were asked to make a follow-up telephone interview
with their patients 3-7 days after the pharmacy visit. Pharmacists from 54 pharmacies (55.7%)
completed the interviews of 1,021 patients. Responses from 998 patients (97.7%) were usable for data
analysis. The responses were from the patients with URI 71.5%, simple wound 21.2% and acute diarrhea
7.2%. The proportion between the antibiotic-dispensed group and the non antibiotic-dispensed group
were 26.8% and 73.2%, respectively. Interview results showed that 91.2% of patients were fully recovered
or better and 83.9% were satisfied and very satisfied with the treatment. There were no statistical differences
on patients’ health outcome and satisfaction between the antibiotic-dispensed group and the non
antibiotic-dispensed group (p-value > 0.05) and no statistical difference across the three targeted diseases
(p-value > 0.05). The study confirms previous studies that URI, diarrhea and simple wound can be cured without antibiotics.
