title: Outpatient prescription practices in rural township health centers in Sichuan Province, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sichuan Province is an agricultural and economically developing province in western China. To understand practices of prescribing medications for outpatients in rural township health centers is important for the development of the rural medical and health services in this province and western China.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is an observational study based on data from the 4th National Health Services Survey of China. A total of 3,059 prescriptions from 30 township health centers in Sichuan Province were collected and analyzed. Seven indicators were employed in the analyses to characterize the prescription practices. They are disease distribution, average cost per encounter, number of medications per encounter, percentage of encounters with antibiotics, percentage of encounters with glucocorticoids, percentage of encounters with combined glucocorticoids and antibiotics, and percentage of encounters with injections.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average medication cost per encounter was 16.30 Yuan ($2.59). About 60% of the prescriptions contained Chinese patent medicine (CPM), and almost all prescriptions (98.07%) contained western medicine. 85.18% of the prescriptions contained antibiotics, of which, 24.98% contained two or more types of antibiotics; the percentage of prescriptions with glucocorticoids was 19.99%; the percentage of prescriptions with both glucocorticoids and antibiotics was 16.67%; 51.40% of the prescriptions included injections, of which, 39.90% included two or more injections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings from this study demonstrated irrational medication uses of antibiotics, glucocorticoids and injections prescribed for outpatients in the rural township health centers in Sichuan Province. The reasons for irrational medication uses are not only solely due to the pursuit of maximizing benefits in the township health centers, but also more likely attributable to the lack of medical knowledge of rational medication uses among rural doctors and the lack of medical devices for disease diagnosis in those township health centers. The policy implication from this study is to enhance professional training in rational medication uses for rural doctors, improve hardware facilities for township health centers, promote health education to rural residents and establish a public reporting system to monitor prescription practices in rural township health centers, etc.
authors.affiliation: West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, No,17 Section 3 South Renmin Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Bo Nancy
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Guiying
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.forename: Jiaqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Huaping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Juying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002681:China; D016527:Drug Costs; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D019338:Polypharmacy; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036301:Qualitative Research; D019035:Rural Health Services
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D005938:Glucocorticoids