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Perceptions and attitudes of Jordanian paediatricians towards off-label paediatric prescribing

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Abstract

Objective To assess current experiences and attitudes of hospital based paediatricians towards off-label medicine prescribing. Setting Paediatric hospital wards and out-patient clinics. Design A prospective, questionnaire based study. Results A 30 item questionnaire was sent to 300 hospital based paediatricians and 250 (83%) were returned completed. Over 69% of responders were familiar with the term off-label medicines. However, only 28% were knowingly prescribing off-label medicines to children. The majority of respondents (90%) expressed concerns about the safety and efficacy of off-label medicines. Only 15% had observed Adverse Drug Reactions, and 31% a treatment failure. The vast majority of respondents (83%) did not obtain informed consent or tell parents they were prescribing off label medicines to their children. Conclusions Off-label prescribing of medicines to children is a familiar concept to the majority of paediatricians in Jordan although only a smaller number are aware that it is common in their practice. Respondents showed concern about off label prescribing, although the majority do not consider it necessary to inform parents. More comprehensive research is needed in this area in Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries.

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Acknowledgments

All the paediatricians who participated in this study.

Funding

No external funding was obtained for this study.

Conflicts of interest

None declared.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan

    Tareq L. Mukattash

  2. Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Mayyada Wazaify

  3. Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Najwa Khuri-Boulos

  4. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

    Anan Jarab

  5. Clinical and Practice Research Group, School of Pharmacy, Medical Biology Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, BT9 7BL, Belfast, UK

    Ahmed F. Hawwa & James C. McElnay

Authors
  1. Tareq L. Mukattash
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  2. Mayyada Wazaify
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  3. Najwa Khuri-Boulos
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  4. Anan Jarab
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  5. Ahmed F. Hawwa
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  6. James C. McElnay
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tareq L. Mukattash.

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Mukattash, T.L., Wazaify, M., Khuri-Boulos, N. et al. Perceptions and attitudes of Jordanian paediatricians towards off-label paediatric prescribing. Int J Clin Pharm 33, 964–973 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-011-9569-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-011-9569-z

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