Community pharmacists' management of minor ailments in developing countries: A systematic review of types, recommendations, information gathering and counselling practices

Aims To conduct a systematic review of the management minor ailments by community pharmacists in developing countries, and to identify specific encountered, medications recommended or requested information gathering counselling practices. Method Observational studies from countries published English language inception 2019 report were systematically searched PubMed, ScienceDirect Cochrane Library. Results Thirty full-text studies, out 7876 retrieved screened, included review. Minor ailment-induced encounters patients with are generally pervasive involve mainly verbal request for medicines name (60%). The most frequent reported respiratory, gastrointestinal musculoskeletal conditions, common cough/cold preparations, antimotility oral rehydration preparation, analgesic/antipyretic. Inappropriate recommendation antibiotics acute diarrhoea cough/colds (40%) (10/25). Community encountered 11-30 customers per day, an average about 4.8 (1.3-20.5) minutes encounter. None availability and/or use protocol guide ailments. There was wide variation type depth gathered used ailments; provided pharmacists, there no evidence documentation activities related Conclusions pharmacists' encounter appear extensive probably present opportunity contribute significantly reduce disease burden enhance public health. However, process is currently unstructured, unguided vary quality recommendations,