Evaluation of Real-Life Dosing of Oral Medicines With Respect to Fluid and Food Intake in a Dutch-Speaking Population

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Oral drug administration is the most preferred route of drug administration. For some specific classes of drugs, recommendations regarding the intake of the drug product are provided by and approved in the summary of product characteristics (SmPC) after testing the oral drug product in clinical trials under strict and predefined conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate how certain classes of medicines are taken in a "real-life" setting in terms of concomitant fluid and food intake by a Dutch-speaking population in Flanders (Belgium). The outcome of this study was comprehensively discussed with literature data to evaluate the positive or negative consequences of their drug intake in daily life. METHODS: A retrospective and non-interventional study was set up by means of questionnaires completed by two different groups: children (ie 0-15 years) and (young) adults (ie 16 years and older). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: In children, the co-administered volume increases with age because of a gradual switch from liquids to solid dosage forms. In adults, water was the most selected co-administered fluid and the preferred volume of intake was a half glass of liquid. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Results of the surveys clearly indicated that the majority of all participants took their medication with a sip or half glass of water. However, this was not the case for the youngest children, as their preferred formulations were liquids (eg solutions, suspensions) which do not require any extra intake of liquid. In the case of specific classes of drugs, real-life intake can still be improved, suggesting that the pharmacist's advice has an important influence on their administration of medicines.

Publication year:2017

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:0.5

CSS-citation score:1

Authors:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open