Souares Aurelia, Lalou Richard, Senghor Paul, Le Hesran Jean-Yves. (2010). Child age or weight : difficulties related to the prescription of the right dosage of antimalarial combinations to treat children in Senegal. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 104 (2), p. 104-109. ISSN 0035-9203.
Titre du document
Child age or weight : difficulties related to the prescription of the right dosage of antimalarial combinations to treat children in Senegal
Souares Aurelia, Lalou Richard, Senghor Paul, Le Hesran Jean-Yves
Source
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2010,
104 (2), p. 104-109 ISSN 0035-9203
Less than a year after the introduction of amodiaquine (AQ)/sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as the first-line antimalarial treatment in Senegal, Our study aimed to assess patients' drug intake and check its correspondence with nurses' prescription-adherence, the national guidelines regimen and theoretical dosage. The study was conducted at five health centers. Children aged 2-10 years who were prescribed AQ/SP by the nurse were recruited. At day 3, caregivers were questioned about treatment adherence. We collected information about nurses' prescriptions and conducted in-depth interviews on prescription patterns. Among the 289 children who were recruited, 35.3% took less than 80% of the prescribed doses. Nevertheless, 47.7% and 83.7% respectively for AQ and SP received a dosage higher than the theoretical dosage. Age-weight discrepancy leads to overprescribing drugs: nurses acknowledged using the child's age more often than weight to determine the dosage if the child has a low weight. Under and overdosing are not only due to patient practices but causes related to national guidelines and health staff practices. For successful implementation and utilization of antimalarial combinations in Africa, countries should really focus on nurses' training. National guidelines should also be based on national average weight instead of international tables.
