title: Multidisciplinary perspective intervention with community involvement to decrease antibiotic sales in village groceries in Thailand.
abstract: In Thailand, antibiotics are rampantly available in village groceries, despite the fact that it is illegal to sell antibiotics without a pharmacy license. This study implemented a multidisciplinary perspectives intervention with community involvement (MPI&CI), which was developed based on information obtained from focus groups that included multidisciplinary stakeholders. Community leaders in the intervention group were trained to implement MPI&CI in their villages. A quasi-experiment with a pretest-posttest design was conducted. Data were collected from 20 villages in Mahasarakham Province (intervention group) along with another 20 villages (comparison group). Using a generalized linear mixed model Poisson regression with repeated measures, groceries in the intervention group had 87% fewer antibiotics available at postintervention compared with preintervention (relative rate = 0.13; 95% confidence interval = 0.07-0.23), whereas the control group had only an 8% reduction in antibiotic availability (relative rate = 0.92; 95% confidence interval = 0.88-0.97) between the 2 time periods. Further study should be made to assess the sustainability and long-term effectiveness of MPI&CI.
authors.affiliation: Mahasarakham University, Mahasarakham, Thailand Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Somsak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arparsrithongsagul
authors.affiliation: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand vithaya.k@chula.ac.th.
authors.forename: Vithaya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kulsomboon
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ilene H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Zuckerman
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D003132:Commerce; D019058:Community Networks; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012424:Rural Population; D012651:Self Medication; D013785:Thailand
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: antibiotics; community drug use; consumer drug use; drug regulation control; self-medication