RT Journal Article
T1 Antibiotic Dispensation without a Prescription Worldwide: A Systematic Review
A1 Batista, Ana Daniela
A1 Rodrigues, Daniela A.
A1 Figueiras Guzmán, Adolfo
A1 Zapata Cachafeiro, Maruxa
A1 Roque, Fátima
A1 Herdeiro, Maria Teresa Ferreira
K1 Antibiotics
K1 Non-prescription antibiotic dispensing
K1 Pharmacy practice
K1 Self-medication
AB Antibiotic resistance still remains a major global public health problem and the dispensing of antibiotics without a prescription at community pharmacies is an important driver of this. MEDLINE, Pubmed and EMBASE databases were used to search and identify studies reporting the dispensing of non-prescribed antibiotics in community pharmacies or drugstores that sell drugs for human use, by applying pharmacy interviews/questionnaires methods and/or simulated patient methods. Of the 4683 studies retrieved, 85 were included, of which 59 (69.4%) were published in low-and middle-income countries. Most of the papers (83.3%) presented a percentage of antibiotic dispensing without a prescription above 60.0%. Sixty-one studies evaluated the active substance and the most sold antibiotics without a prescription were amoxicillin (86.9%), azithromycin (39.3%), ciprofloxacin (39.3%), and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (39.3%). Among the 65 articles referencing the diseases/symptoms, this practice was shown to be mostly associated with respiratory system problems (100.0%), diarrhea (40.0%), and Urinary Tract Infections (30.8%). In sum, antibiotics are frequently dispensed without a prescription in many countries and can thus have an important impact on the development of resistance at a global level. Our results indicate the high need to implement educational and/or regulatory/administrative strategies in most countries, aiming to reduce this practice
PB MDPI
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24051
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24051
LA eng
NO Batista, A.D.; A. Rodrigues, D.; Figueiras, A.; Zapata-Cachafeiro, M.; Roque, F.; Herdeiro, M.T. Antibiotic Dispensation without a Prescription Worldwide: A Systematic Review. Antibiotics 2020, 9, 786
NO This research was funded by the project PTDC/SAU-SER/31678/2017, supported by the Operational Program on Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) in its FEDER/FNR component, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031678, and by the Foundation for Science and Technology in its state budget component (OE)
DS Minerva
RD 23 abr 2026