Influence of Location and Staff Knowledge on Quality of Retail Pharmacy Prescribing for Childhood Diarrhea in Kenya

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Abstract
Background: Retail pharmacies are important sources of advice on pharmaceuticals in developing countries, where many purchasing decisions are unmediated by medical professionals. For childhood diarrhea, choice of drug sales in pharmacies has been found to be consistently poor, whether with or without prescription, as evidenced by a low use of effective oral rehydration salts (ORS) and high use of marginally effective or ineffective products such as antimotility agents, adsorbents, and antimicrobials. Little information is available about factors influencing prescribing by pharmacy personnel in these settings. This paper reports results of an analysis which examined the influence of rural versus urban location, neighborhood socio-economic status (SES), and clinical knowledge of pharmacy assistants on quality of prescribing in retail pharmacies in Kenya.