Knowledge and attitude evaluation of assistant and intern doctors working at Trakya University Health Research and Application Center towards rational use of drugs

Aim: Rational drug use; while it has a very important place in the correct and effective treatment of diseases individually, it is also an approach that can be beneficial at the social level due to many problems caused by unnecessary and wrong drug use. Physicians, who are one of the most important components of this issue, have responsibilities to themselves as well as to their patients. Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted to evaluate whether there is a difference in rational drug use between interns and assistant doctors working at Trakya University Health Research and Application Center in the 2022-2023 academic year, and its relationship with socio-demographic variables. In the questionnaire form, there were questions about the socio-demographic characteristics of the doctors, drug use characteristics, habits and behaviors. A package program called Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20 was used to perform statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of the study group was 27.3 ± 3.9 and 56.3 % of them were women. The mean score of the participants on the Rational Drug Use Scale was 40.1 ± 2.8, and it was determined that only 4.7% of the physicians scored below the cut-off score. There was no significant difference between assistant doctors and interns in terms of rational drug use knowledge level (p>0.05). Rational drug use knowledge levels were found to be statistically higher in women compared to men, in internal sciences compared to surgical and basic sciences, and those who went to the doctor/pharmacy in case of illness and those who benefited from the advice of relatives/used herbal treatment (p<0.05). Conclusion: It can be inferred that the physicians participating in our study have a high level of knowledge about rational drug use and are sensitive to the subject. However, it was still found that there were mistakes and deficiencies in habits, attitudes and behaviors regarding rational drug use. Therefore, it is important not only to eliminate the lack of knowledge but also to implement the correct rational drug use attitudes and behaviors. Key words: Drug, rational drug use, physician