Pharmacy Practice is a free full-text journal with a scope on the practice of pharmacy. Pharmacy Practice covers pharmaceutical care, social pharmacy, pharmacy education, process and outcome research, health promotion and education, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology

Satisfaction with and adherence to oral anticoagulant treatment are important measures that decrease morbidity and mortality. Higher satisfaction and adherence to warfarin therapy was found to be associated among other factors with good International Normalized Ratio (INR) control. To assess patient satisfaction with and adherence to oral anticoagulant therapy and to identify predictors of the two studied domains. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Cardiothoracic Clinic in Alshaab Teaching Hospital; Khartoum; Sudan during March-April 2015. A representative sample of patients on oral anticoagulant treatment was recruited. Data was collected through face-to-face interview method using oral Anti-Clot Treatment Scale (ATCS) to measure satisfaction and the 4-items Morisky Scale to measure adherence to therapy. Data was processed using SPSS. Logistic regression analysis was performed. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 93 patients was included, of them 46 were males. Overall, 47 (50.5%) were classified as satisfied with anti-clot treatment. Patients attained secondary and above educational level were approximately 8 times more satisfied with their anti-clot treatment, compared to those educated below this level, [OR 7.9 (2.9-21.7), P < 0.001]. Similarly, patients currently working were found to be approximately 3 times more satisfied with warfarin therapy, compared those who had no jobs, [OR 2.9 (1.1-7.6), P = 0.035]. Overall, 5.4% of the patients were found to be adherent to warfarin therapy. No definite background characteristic variable was found to be associated with adherence to treatment. No association was found between patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment, (P = 0.490). Ensuring health education on warfarin together with continuous patients motivation are needed, specifically among patients with low educational level. Efficient multidisciplinary effort from all healthcare providers is needed to make warfarin treatment more successful.

Parents’ false beliefs about signs and symptoms associated with teething have been documented in many studies around the world. This study was conducted to assess parental knowledge on infant teething process and to investigate parents’ practices used to alleviate teething disturbances. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among parents of children of 6 months–5 years old in Taif, Saudi Arabia during April 2013. Convenience method of sampling was adopted and the data was collected by mean of a structured-questionnaire. Data was processed by SPPS. Logistic regression analysis was performed. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Overall, of 493 participants were included in the final analysis with mean age 35 years. Females constituted more than two-third. All the parents attributed one or more of the listed signs and symptoms to teething process. Desire to bite, fever, gum irritation, increased salivation and diarrhea were the most reported signs and symptoms of teething by 459 (93.1 %), 429 (87 %), 415 (84.2 %), 414 (84 %) and 409 (83 %) of the parents respectively. The only predictor of ascribing fever as a sign of infant teething was female gender (P = 0.001). However, female gender (P < 0.001), residence (P = 0.039) and educational level (P = 0.006) were found to be significantly associated with ascribing diarrhea as one of the teething symptoms. Only 91 (18.5 %) of the parents responded correctly to all questions designed to assess their knowledge on teething process. Wide gaps in parents’ knowledge and practices related infant teething was identified. Educational interventions are needed to upgrade parents’ knowledge and improve their practices regarding infant teething process.

Background: Women with HIV (WHIV) in the United States face many challenges with adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and suboptimal adherence often leads to virologic failure. This study aimed to determine the association between ART adherence trajectories and the risk of virologic failure. Methods: We included WHIV (aged 18 years or older) enrolled in the Women's Interagency HIV Study in the United States from April 2014 to September 2019 who had at least 2 consecutive measurements of HIV RNA and ≥3 measurements of self-reported adherence. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify adherence trajectories. Cox proportional hazard ratios were used to measure the association. Main Outcome Measure: Virologic failure was defined as HIV RNA ≥200 copies/mL at 2 consecutive visits. Results: We included 1437 WHIV (median age 49 years). Of all women, 173 (12.0%) experienced virologic failure. Four adherence trajectories were identified, namely “consistently high” (26.3%), “moderate increasing” (9.5%), “moderate decreasing” (30.6%), and “consistently low” (33.5%). Women in the consistently low adherence group consumed alcohol and experienced depression more than other groups. Compared with the “consistently high” trajectory, the risk of virologic failure was higher among women with “consistently low” [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 2.8; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.6 to 4.9; P < 0.001] and “moderate decreasing” adherence trajectories (aHR 1.8; 95% CI: 1.0 to 3.2; P = 0.04), but it was similar to those with “moderate increasing” adherence trajectory (aHR 1.0; 95% CI: 0.4 to 2.5; P = 0.94). Conclusions: Adherence to ART remains a challenge among WHIV. Multilevel behavioral interventions to address poor adherence, alcohol consumption, and depression are needed.