Background: At present, the rational use of medicines is not promoted sufficiently. People use medicines as per their knowledge, perceptions, and habits.
Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of public education on the rational use of medicines.
Materials and Methods: The study was randomized and controlled. It was conducted in households at sector 6, 8 and 10 of Nerul, Navi Mumbai. The study included 54 households in intervention group and 60 in controlled group. The intervention was providing education via information brochure containing information on rational use of medicines in the first visit. The households were interviewed using a pretested and validated questionnaire one month after circulation of the information brochure. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24.0 at 95% level of significance with FisherÂ’s exact test.
Result: The intervention group showed a significant improvement in correct knowledge of generic medicines, drug use in pregnancy, lactation and in children, precautions in the use of drugs in renal and hepatic disease and antibiotic use. Similarly, there was a significant improvement in the attitudes and practices of rational use of medicines.
Conclusion: Public education definitely leads to significant improvement in rational use of medicines. Information brochure is an effective tool of providing health related education to general public.
Key words: Antibiotic, diabetes, generic, hypertension, pregnancy
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