Table 3 Product availability, cultural acceptability, and geographical accessibility to PHC units providing essential drug list to rural and urban groups during the study period (2019)
Product availability | Residence | P value** | |
|---|---|---|---|
Rural unit | Urban unit | ||
Median (min.‑max.) | Median (min.‑max.) | ||
No. of drugs prescribed | 2 (1‑7) | 3 (1‑8) | ˂ 0.001 |
No. of drugs dispensed | 1 (0‑3) | 2 (0‑6) | ˂ 0.001 |
Percent of drugs dispensed | 50 (0‑100) | 66.7 (0‑100) | 0.984 |
No. of visits in the previous 3 months | 4 (1‑15) | 3 (1‑20) | 0.012 |
No. of visits during which patients found all the prescribed drugs | 1 (0‑9) | 1 (0‑15) | 0.552 |
Percent of visits where all drugs were found | 27.5 (0‑100) | 33.3 (0‑100) | 0.645 |
Geographical accessibility | |||
(N = 138) (%) | (N = 138) (%) | P value* | |
Less than an hour | 137 (99.3) | 138 (100) | 1 |
More than an hour | 1 (0.7) | 0 (0) | |
Cultural acceptability | |||
A belief that herbal treatment is better than drugs | |||
Yes | 42 (30.4) | 31 (22.5) | 0.197 |
No | 96 (69.6) | 107 (77.5) | |
A belief that private pharmacies drugs are better than PHC drugs | |||
Yes | 33 (23.9) | 14 (10.2) | 0.009 |
No | 105 (76.1) | 124 (89.8) | |