The impact of drug palatability on prescribing and dispensing of antibiotic formulations for paediatric patients: A cross-sectional survey of general practitioners and pharmacists.

Elgammal, Ayat; Ryan, Joseph; Bradley, Colin; Crean, Abina M.; Bermingham, Margaret

The impact of drug palatability on prescribing and dispensing of antibiotic formulations for paediatric patients: A cross-sectional survey of general practitioners and pharmacists.

dc.contributor.author	Elgammal, Ayat	en
dc.contributor.author	Ryan, Joseph	en
dc.contributor.author	Bradley, Colin	en
dc.contributor.author	Crean, Abina M.	en
dc.contributor.author	Bermingham, Margaret	en
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.contributor.funder	European Regional Development Fund	en
dc.date.accessioned	2023-07-10T11:48:13Z
dc.date.available	2023-07-10T11:48:13Z
dc.date.issued	2023-07-06T00:00:00Z	en
dc.description.abstract	Background: Palatability is a key element of paediatric acceptability for medicines. Many patient and drug factors are considered when choosing an antibiotic for a child. Pharmacists report that they receive questions about the palatability of oral liquid antibiotics for children. This study aimed to explore the experiences of GPs and pharmacists concerning palatability of oral liquid antibiotics for children. Methods: A questionnaire about the impact of palatability on the choice of antibiotic formulation for children was emailed to all community pharmacists in Ireland and to GPs and trainee GPs in the Cork region and posted on social media. Survey items were not compulsory; therefore, percentage responses were calculated based on the number of responses to that item. GP and pharmacist responses were analysed independently. Results: Responses were received from 244 participants (59 GPs, 185 pharmacists). Clinical guidelines and availability of supply were the most important factors considered when choosing an oral liquid antibiotic formulation for children by GP (79.7%) and pharmacist (66.5%) respondents respectively. Forty GP respondents (76.9%) reported ensuring adherence was the most common palatability-related reason leading to deviation from guidelines. Pharmacist respondents (52%) reported advising a parent/caregiver to manipulate the required antibiotic dose to improve acceptability. The least palatable oral liquid antibiotics reported were flucloxacillin (16% GPs, 18% pharmacists) and clarithromycin (17% of each profession). Conclusion: This study identified palatability issues associated with oral liquid antibiotics for children reported by GPs and pharmacists. Pharmaceutical approaches to adapting oral liquid antibiotic formulations must be developed to improve palatability and thus paediatric acceptability.	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.articleid	cmad071	en
dc.identifier.citation	Elgammal, A., Ryan, J., Bradley, C., Crean, A. and Bermingham, M. (2023) ‘The impact of drug palatability on prescribing and dispensing of antibiotic formulations for paediatric patients: a cross-sectional survey of general practitioners and pharmacists’, Family Practice, cmad071 (8 pp). https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmad071.	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1093/fampra/cmad071	en
dc.identifier.endpage	8	en
dc.identifier.issn	0263-2136	en
dc.identifier.issn	1460-2229	en
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Family Practice	en
dc.identifier.startpage	1	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/14707
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Oxford University Press	en
dc.relation.project	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SFI/SFI Research Centres/12/RC/2275/IE/Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC)/	en
dc.rights	© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Antibiotics	en
dc.subject	Antimicrobial stewardship	en
dc.subject	Caregivers	en
dc.subject	Paediatrics	en
dc.subject	Patient adherence	en
dc.subject	Primary care	en
dc.title	The impact of drug palatability on prescribing and dispensing of antibiotic formulations for paediatric patients: A cross-sectional survey of general practitioners and pharmacists.	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en