Knowledge attitudes and behavior of research assistants about rational drug use

Introduction: Nowadays, medication has an indespensible position for health care. Rational medication has a seperate importance due to its both individually and social preventative role of diseases. Non rational medication has a significant share in health expenses of our country. The aim of this study is to determine the non family medicine residents' knowledge, attitude and behaviours about rational medication in Ankara city center. Material and Methods: One hundred and eight non family medicine residents in training and research hospitals of Ankara were included in this study. A query about rational medication that composed of 27 questions was given to clinicians. The data obtained from our study were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 23. During assessment of data; disturbutions (Number, %) were given for categorical variables. For evaluting the relationship between two categories chi square test was used. In case of inadequate numbers of groups for chi square test, groups were combined then the chi square test was applied again. The statistical significance value was accepted as p< 0,05. Results: 56.1%(n=101) of clinicians were male while 43.9%(n=79) of them were female. 51.7%(n=93) of clinicians were betweens 26-30 years old. 63.3%(n=114) were training in internal medicines while 36.7%(n=66) of them in surgical branches. 65.6%(n=118) of the clinicians explained to patients the possible results of the medication at prescription. 41.7% (n=75) of the clinicians never prescribed drugs without physical examination.The most chosen options those the clinicians found themselves to be very satisfactory were drug endications and daily dosages with rates of 18.8%(n=31) and 18%(n=30), respectively. The most chosen option that the clinicans found themselves to be not satisfactory was drug prices with a rate of 10.4%(n=17). The most common drugs were antibiotics, analgesics and PPIs with rates of 35,3%, 18,7%, 12,8%respectively. 83.1%(n=147) of the clinicians thought the efficacy of the drug to be the most important criteria while 20.2%(n=35) of them thought the price of the drug as the most important factor. 2.2%(n=4) of the clinicians found themselves to be very satisfactory, 35.8%(n=64) satisfactory, 54.2 %(n=97) moderately satisfactory and 7.8 %(n=14) of them not satisfactory in rational medication. Conclusion: Non rational medication is a universal problem across the world as well as in our country. Even there are improvements for rational medication both in our country and the world, there are stil problems. For reaching the rational medication conciousness, both formal and general education facilities should be used and improved. Besides the education, for the prevention and supporting of the gained attitudes and behaviours, administrative arrangements should be made. That's why, undergraduate and postgraduate educations should be revised for our clinicians to obtain objective knowledge in our country. For most of the components of rational medication, the clinicians found themselves to be not satisfactory. This reveals that there are serious problems in this issue before and after graduation.