title: The use of medication in infants in Alexandria, Egypt.
abstract: In Egypt, the determinants and rationale for drug use among infants have not been previously studied. We give an overview of the use of prescribed and non-prescribed medication over a 1-month period in infants in Alexandria, Egypt. In 89.6% of cases mothers stated that their infants had suffered some ailments which necessitated intervention; 27.5% used traditional therapies or non-prescribed medication and 72.5% sought medical advice. The non-prescribed medicines used were mainly antispasmodics and antipyretics. This study provides the first overview of the frequency of use of non-prescribed medication in infants and detected some indicators of irrational drug prescribing by physicians.
authors.affiliation: Medical Statistics Department, Alexandria University, Egypt.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdel-Fattah
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bassili
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arafa
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bedwani
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization; D004534:Egypt; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009035:Mothers; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data