Inappropriate drug use is frequent among patients with NVAF not only for warfarin but also for NOACs. Although there is an apparent improvement in thromboprophylaxis of NVAF, much more effort is needed for appropriate use of OACs.

AimPhysicians’ inappropriate prescribing habits affect patients’ lives both medically and financially. To avoid these unwanted situations, the World Health Organization defined the rational use of drugs (RUD) in 1985. This study aimed to investigate whether patients were as informed about their diagnosis and medication as anticipated and their knowledge about the RUD in general.MethodsA questionnaire was given to 260 patients being treated at the Kartal Training and Research Hospital between February and March 2012.ResultsMost of the patients declared that they were not informed enough about their diagnosis and not all of the physicians evaluated their therapies. These undesirable conditions were due to high daily examined patient numbers. A total of 68.6% of patients stated that time allotted per patient was 0–10 minutes, 33.1% found the information given sufficient, and 11.3% were told to repeat back narratives about their treatments. Instructions and warnings given by physicians about prescribed drugs did not fully meet the RUD criteria. The majority of referred patients were willing to be educated about the subject.ConclusionThese results showed that heavy patient load seriously affects the RUD process. Improvement of the current health system should be given serious consideration. After sufficient arrangements have been made in this field, patients will be able to be informed properly about medicines prescribed by their physicians. Also, public education programs will be helpful to raise awareness of the subject on a larger scale.

Our findings overall show that the principles of RUD were not fully applied in daily medical practice by the participating physicians. One important reason for this is a heavy patient load, which requires a change in managerial practices within the healthcare system. The other, more essential explanation is education; consequently, serious consideration should be given to including effective clinical pharmacotherapy training and RUD courses in the medical education curriculum.

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Background/aim: Irrational drug use is a common problem. This study aimed to evaluate patients' knowledge and habits concerning drug use, and compare them in terms of some sociodemographic characteristics. Materials and methods:A face-to-face questionnaire was given to outpatients from family healthcare centres (FHCs) and state hospitals (SHs) in 12 provinces in Turkey during May 2010. A total of 4470 patients (FHCs: 2209; SHs: 2261) responded to the questionnaire (response rate: 93.1%).Results: Getting prescriptions without a physical examination was common (second place in FHCs; third place in SHs); 51.0% stated that they wanted physicians to prescribe drugs that they had used before. More than half stated that antibiotics cured every illness. In addition, 55.9% reported that their relatives recommended drugs to them when they got ill; 37.1% reported that they recommended them to relatives as well. Of the survey respondents, 70.5% stated that they had stopped their medications before the recommended time. Patients' knowledge and attitudes about drug use showed significant differences in comparisons of sex, age, educational level, and social security. Conclusion:Patients' knowledge and attitudes about drugs were far from rational. To eliminate irrational use of drugs, public education about drug use is needed.