Impact of educational outreach visits by pharmacists on treatment of childhood diarrhoea - initial findings from Banke district, Nepal

Diarrhoea is one of the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in children in developing countries. Oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc are the primary tools used to fight diarrhoea in children. Educational outreach visits or academic detailing has been practiced over a period of time to improve prescribing behaviour in the developed countries. However, educational outreach programmes are very uncommon in Nepal. We conducted a pilot study to see the impact of educational outreach visits on the management of diarrhoea in children among 10 prescribers in the Banke district of Nepal. Initial findings suggest that there is a marked improvement on the prescribing of ORS and zinc by the prescribers after our intervention. Therefore it is planned to conduct the same study among a large number of prescribers in the Banke district of Nepal.