[Prescription habits of Peruvian doctors and factors influencing them]

A study to determine what sources of information influence the prescription habits of Peruvian physicians, how those habits are modified by experience, and how appropriate the prescribed drug treatment is for certain common ailments was carried out from September 1991 to December 1992. A questionnaire was administered to 800 physicians in two urban fringe areas of Lima and Chimbote. Of those doctors, 184 had established practices and 309 were recent graduates. The questionnaire asked what sources of information determined prescribing behavior, what medicines were and were not indispensable in outpatient clinical practice, and what drug treatments were appropriate for iron deficiency anemia and lower urinary tract infections in women. The answers showed that knowledge acquired in medical school had little influence on the prescribing habits of either group of doctors. More than two-thirds stated that their principal source of pharmacologic information was the scientific literature: 69.9% of the practicing physicians and 79.9% of the recent graduates, with the difference between the groups being statistically significant (P < 0.01). The drugs that were indispensable in ambulatory practice were correctly identified by 28.8% of the physicians, while 28.9% correctly answered the question on what groups of drugs should not be prescribed. The differences between the two groups were not significant. On the other hand, 60% of the established physicians and 52% of the recent graduates gave the right answers to the questions on treatment of iron deficiency anemia and urinary tract infection, and there was no significant difference between the two groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)