Pharmacists report a number of misconceptions and inappropriate practices relating to antibiotic use in Qatar by patients and healthcare providers. Education to improve knowledge of appropriate antibiotic use is needed. Despite recognition of these issues, barriers are preventing pharmacists from implementing strategies to improve antibiotic use in Qatar.

In an earlier study (Cartwright and Tucker, 1967) we explored the possibility of reducing the number of calls on an interview inquiry by writing to people beforehand asking when they were most likely to be in. That experiment was unsuccessful: more people replied saying that they did not want to be interviewed than wrote telling us suitable times to call, and the final response rate in the experimental group who were sent letters was lower than in the control group who were not.Advance letters which simply inform people about the study and do not ask for any reply may have a different effect. To test this we decided to try to assess the effect of an advance letter on the response rate in our next study. METHODThe study was carried out in 12 randomly selected registration districts in England and Wales. The areas were chosen after stratification by region and with a probability proportional to population. The fathers were subsequently approached by men interviewers and the mothers by women. The interview was mainly about family planning. RESULTS Th RESPONSE OF MoTs AmN FATHSThe response among those still living in the area was 91 % for the mothers and significantly less, 82%, for the fathers. There was no difference in the response of mothers who were sent a letter and those who were not but the letter apparently halved the failure rate among the fathers, reducing it from 23 % to 12%. These differences are shown in Table I.In our earlier study (Cartwright and Tucker, 1967), too, the letter seemed to have more impact on men than on women, but that time, when they were asked to reply and say when they were most likely to be in and able to be interviewed, it had an adverse effect. Some possible hypotheses to explain these differences are: 241 copyright.

In the middle part of this century health services research was part of the radical movement. It was concerned with affecting the climate ofpolicy formation and in defming future options. 1

There has been serious concern about the nutritional care provided in some secondary and primary care settings. As a result, best practice, benchmarking initiatives and nutritional guidance have been issued by government and non-government agencies. This article helps nurses to synthesise these initiatives and improve their knowledge of nutritional care.

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