A SURVEY ON THE USE OF CORTICOSTEROID EYE DROPS/ OINTMENTS OF PATIENTS BEFORE EXAMINATION AT VIETNAM NATIONAL EYE HOSPITAL

Tứ Sơn Nguyễn, Hồng Minh Nguyễn, Xuân Hiệp Nguyễn, Thị Thu Trang Trần , Thị THảo Nguyễn, Minh Châu Điều , Thị Liên Hương Nguyễn

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Abstract

The survey was conducted by interviewing patients who waiting for their examination at Vietnam National eye hospital using a predesigned questionnaire. A total of 827 patients were interviewed, of which 153 patients (18.5%) had used the corticosteroid eye drops/ointments in the past 3 months. Almost haft of the patients (47.7%) used the medication without prescription out of the total 153 patients. Among them, the most cases bought the medication at the pharmacies (42.5%), followed by sharing with family members (2.6%) and self-purchasing based on old prescriptions (2.6%). Among the 827 patients, the percentage of patients who self-administration corticosteroid eye drops/ointments was 8.8%. In terms of selection, the combination of antibiotics and corticosteroids is commonly used (81.0%). Most patients used the drug for less than 2 weeks (73.2%). 89.5% of the patients did not know that the eye drops/ointments medication they used contained corticosteroids. 28.8% of the patients were unaware of the drug’s role in their disease. This proportion was higher in the group using the medicine without prescription than in the group using with a doctor's prescription (41.1% vs. 17.5%, p=0.01). 96.1% of patients did not know of any adverse effects of using ophthalmic corticosteroids. This study suggests that strategies should be developed to manage the seft-administration of corticosteroids and improve awareness, knowledge and attitudes of both people and healthcare workers at the pharmacies.

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References

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