Resumo

HULUMAN, Thriya; YELVERTON, Christopher  e  PETERSON, Cynthia. Attitudes towards limited drug prescription rights: A survey of South African chiropractors. Health SA Gesondheid (Online) [online]. 2022, vol.27, pp.1-8. ISSN 2071-9736.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1731.

BACKGROUND: Several surveys that have been published show opinions regarding a change in the scope of chiropractic practice to include prescription rights. Currently, research into the attitudes of South African chiropractors towards having this right is non-existentAIM: To ascertain the attitudes of South African chiropractors towards the inclusion of drug prescription rights in their scope of practiceSETTING: The study was conducted on chiropractors registered with the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa and members of the Chiropractic Association of South AfricaMETHOD: A self-administrative online questionnaire was developed, and sent via email to all registered chiropractors in South Africa in February 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the dataRESULTS: The response rate for this study was 15.9% (n = 138). 84% (n =105) were in favour of limited prescription rights for over-the-counter medication. However, 79.6% (n = 98) did not agree to full prescriptions rights for non-musculoskeletal drugs. A total of 33.6% (n = 42) rarely recommended OTC and prescription-based analgesics, muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to their acute patients and 37.9% (n = 52) rarely recommended these drugs to chronic patients. 68.8% (n = 86) were confident in their knowledge of musculoskeletal drugs and 91.2% (n = 112) agreed on further education and training in pharmacology for those practitioners seeking limited medication prescription rightsCONCLUSION: The majority of South African chiropractor respondents indicated an interest in expanding their scope of practice to include limited prescription rightsCONTRIBUTION: These findings could indicate a shift in the attitudes of chiropractors towards drug prescription rights within the profession

Palavras-chave : attitudes; chiropractic; drug prescription; professional perspective; professional scope of practice.

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