Economic and social drivers of antibiotic dispensing practices among community pharmacies in Nepal.

OBJECTIVE: To assess economic and social drivers of dispensing antibiotics without prescription by community pharmacies in Nepal. METHOD: A survey was conducted among 111 pharmacy owners and managers in five districts. Information on demographic and economic characteristics of the pharmacies (e.g. revenue and profits from antibiotics) and their inclination to sell antibiotics without a physician's prescription under various scenarios (e.g. diarrhoea in a child) was collected. Univariate analysis was conducted to assess the demographic and economic characteristics. Bivariate analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between dispensing antibiotics without prescription and economic and social factors. RESULTS: Azithromycin and amoxicillin were the most commonly dispensed antibiotics. The proportions of pharmacies reporting that they would 'most likely' or 'likely' dispense antibiotics without prescription to adult patients ranged from 36.9% (sore throat) to 67.6% (cough). The proportions for paediatric patients ranged from 62.2% (sore throat) to 80.2% (cough or diarrhoea). There was no consistent relationship between the likelihood of dispensing antibiotics and revenues, profits or the number of patients. Instead, dispensing behaviour was influenced by the pressure from the patient; the respondents were more likely to dispense antibiotics when the patient specifically asked for 'an antibiotic' rather than for 'a medicine', and 68.5% respondents ranked 'customer satisfaction' as the most important factor motivating their work. CONCLUSIONS: In Nepal, inappropriate sale of antibiotics by community pharmacists is high, particularly for paediatric patients. Additional research is needed to establish key drivers of this behaviour and to help design effective approaches to reducing AMR.

Protocol for a randomized controlled trial on community education and surveillance on antibiotics use among young children in Nepal.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top ten threats to global health. There exists limited empirical evidence on effective approaches to address this threat. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), one of the primary drivers of AMR is easy access to antibiotics without prescriptions, in particular from community pharmacies. Interventions to reduce non-prescribed use of antibiotics and surveillance systems to track such usage are critically needed. This protocol describes a study that aims to test the effect of an educational intervention targeted to parents of young children on non-prescribed antibiotics consumption in Nepal and to track such consumption using a phone-based application. Methods: The study is a clustered randomized controlled trial, in which we randomly assign 40 urban wards of Kathmandu Valley to either treatment group or control group, and randomly select 24 households in each ward. Households in the treatment group will receive an education intervention consisting of an "AMR pitch" (an in-person interaction that lasts up to an hour) by community nurses, videos and text messages on AMR every two weeks, and a brochure. We will conduct a survey at baseline with the parents of children ages 6 months to 10 years and track consumption of antibiotics and health care use among these children for a period of 6 months using a phone-based application. Conclusion: While the study will primarily inform future policy and programmatic efforts to reduce AMR in Nepal, the study-both the education intervention and the surveillance system-can serve as a prototype for tackling AMR in other similar settings.

Estimated cost for cardiovascular disease risk-based management at a primary healthcare center in Nepal.

Background: Low- and middle-income countries are facing an increasing burden of disability and death due to cardiovascular diseases. Policy makers and healthcare providers alike need resource estimation tools to improve healthcare delivery and to strengthen healthcare systems to address this burden. We estimated the direct medical costs of primary prevention, screening, and management for cardiovascular diseases in a primary healthcare center in Nepal based on the Global Hearts evidence based treatment protocols for risk-based management. Methods: We adapted the World Health Organization's non-communicable disease costing tool and built a model to predict the annual cost of primary CVD prevention, screening, and management at a primary healthcare center level. We used a one-year time horizon and estimated the cost from the Nepal government's perspective. We used Nepal health insurance board's price for medicines and laboratory tests, and used Nepal government's salary for human resource cost. With the model, we estimated annual incremental cost per case, cost for the entire population, and cost per capita. We also estimated the amount of medicines for one-year, annual number of laboratory tests, and the monthly incremental work load of physicians and nurses who deliver these services. Results: For a primary healthcare center with a catchment population of 10,000, the estimated cost to screen and treat 50% of eligible patients is USD21.53 per case and averages USD1.86 per capita across the catchment population. The cost of screening and risk profiling only was estimated to be USD2.49 per case. At same coverage level, we estimated that an average physician's workload will increase annually by 190 h and by 111 h for nurses, i.e., additional 28.5 workdays for physicians and 16.7 workdays for nurses. The total annual cost could amount up to USD18,621 for such a primary healthcare center. Conclusion: This is a novel study for a PHC-based, primary CVD risk-based management program in Nepal, which can provide insights for programmatic and policy planners at the Nepalese municipal, provincial and central levels in implementing the WHO Global Hearts Initiative. The costing model can serve as a tool for financial resource planning for primary prevention, screening, and management for cardiovascular diseases in other low- and middle-income country settings globally.

Costing Analysis of a Pilot Community Health Worker Program in Rural Nepal.

Community health workers (CHWs) are essential to primary health care systems and are a cost-effective strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nepal is strongly committed to universal health coverage and the SDGs. In 2017, the Nepal Ministry of Health and Population partnered with the nongovernmental organization Nyaya Health Nepal to pilot a program aligned with the 2018 World Health Organization guidelines for CHWs. The program includes CHWs who: (1) receive regular financial compensation; (2) meet a minimum education level; (3) are well supervised; (4) are continuously trained; (5) are integrated into local primary health care systems; (6) use mobile health tools; (7) have consistent supply chain; (8) live in the communities they serve; and (9) provide service without point-of-care user fees. The pilot model has previously demonstrated improved institutional birth rate, antenatal care completion, and postpartum contraception utilization. Here, we performed a retrospective costing analysis from July 16, 2017 to July 15, 2018, in a catchment area population of 60,000. The average per capita annual cost is US$3.05 (range: US$1.94 to US$4.70 across 24 villages) of which 74% is personnel cost. Service delivery and administrative costs and per beneficiary costs for all services are also described. To address the current discourse among Nepali policy makers at the local and federal levels, we also present 3 alternative implementation scenarios that policy makers may consider. Given the Government of Nepal's commitment to increase health care spending (US$51.00 per capita) to 7.0% of the 2030 gross domestic product, paired with recent health care systems decentralization leading to expanded fiscal space in municipalities, this CHW program provides a feasible opportunity to make progress toward achieving universal health coverage and the health-related SDGs. This costing analysis offers insights and practical considerations for policy makers and locally elected officials for deploying a CHW cadre as a mechanism to achieve the SDG targets.

Accountable Care Reforms Improve Women's And Children's Health In Nepal.

Over the past decade the Ministry of Health of Nepal and the nonprofit Possible have partnered to deliver primary and secondary health care via a public-private partnership. We applied an accountable care framework that we previously developed to describe the delivery of their integrated reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services in the Achham district in rural Nepal. In a prospective pre-post study, examining pregnancies at baseline and 541 pregnancies in follow-up over the course of eighteen months, we found an improvement in population-level indicators linked to reducing maternal and infant mortality: receipt of four antenatal care visits (83 percent to 90 percent), institutional birth rate (81 percent to 93 percent), and the prevalence of postpartum contraception (19 percent to 47 percent). The intervention cost $3.40 per capita (at the population level) and $185 total per pregnant woman who received services. This study provides new analysis and evidence on the implementation of innovative care and financing models in resource-limited settings.