ReviewHealth policy and planning2016
Performance of retail pharmacies in low- and middle-income Asian settings: a systematic review.
Review in Health policy and planning, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 123 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
123 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Primary health care networks and impacts in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.Health policy and planning · 2026Pooled it
- Primary health care roles of community pharmacists in low- and middle-income countries: a mixed methods systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions to reduce non-prescription antimicrobial sales in community pharmacies.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pharmacy-based immunization: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Fragmented care pathways for non-communicable disease in Cambodia: implications for people-centred and integrated health systems.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Exploring the roles of informal healthcare providers in urban settings to improve access and quality of care for the urban poor: experience from Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, and Nigeria.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Non-prescription antibiotics dispensing for common infections using simulated patients.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- What happens when public primary care is ill-prepared to respond to non-communicable diseases: a mixed-method study of diabetes and hypertension care in urban Nepal.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic and geographic inequalities in unmet healthcare needs in Cambodia: evidence from a national cross-sectional study.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Regional health inequalities of anticancer drug accessibility under the National Drug Price Negotiation in China: a decomposition analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Identifying community pharmacists' preferences for attributes of public health interventions in Kenya: a discrete choice experiment.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Unlocking the potential of community pharmacies to address hypertension in South Asia: the COPE-BP programme.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- A point prevalence survey on antibiotic dispensing practices identifies targets for quality improvement of antimicrobial stewardship in community pharmacies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- Rethinking assessment for practice readiness: policy implications of the OSCE-practice mismatch in Malaysia.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- Variation and gaps in online pharmacy regulation: a comparative review of regulations across 12 countries.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Prevalence, patterns and factors associated with over-the-counter antibiotic purchase: a cross-sectional study in private pharmacies in Montserrado County, Liberia.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Tackling the disparities in surgical site infections and related antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries.Surgery in practice and science · 2025Review
- Supporting self-managed abortion care in "practice not premise": a qualitative study of provider perspectives, roles, and information pathways to care in India.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2025Article
- Building linkages between private pharmacies and public facilities to improve diabetes and hypertension care in urban areas of Nepal: a protocol for implementation research.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
63 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Asia, pharmacies are often patients' first point of contact with the health care system and their preferred channel for purchasing medicines. Unfortunately, pharmacy practice in these settings has been characterized by deficient knowledge and inappropriate treatment. This paper systematically reviews both the performance of all types of pharmacies and drug stores across Asia's LMIC, and the determinants of poor practice, in order to reflect on how this could best be addressed. Poor pharmacy practice in Asia appears to have persisted over the past 30 years. We identify a set of inadequacies that occur at key moments throughout the pharmacy encounter, including: insufficient history taking; lack of referral of patients who require medical attention; illegal sale of a wide range of prescription only medicines without a prescription; sale of medicines that are either clinically inappropriate and/or in doses that are outside of the therapeutic range; sale of incomplete courses of antibiotics; and limited provision of information and counselling. In terms of determinants of poor practice, first knowledge was found to be necessary but not sufficient to ensure correct management of patients presenting at the pharmacy. This is evidenced by large discrepancies between stated and actual practice; little difference in the treatment behaviour of less and more qualified personnel and the failure of training programmes to improve practice to a satisfactory level. Second, we identified a number of profit maximizing strategies employed by pharmacy staff that can be linked to poor practices. Finally, whilst the research is relatively sparse, the regulatory environment appears to play an important role in shaping behaviour. Future efforts to improve the situation may yield more success than historical attempts, which have tended to concentrate on education, if they address the profit incentives faced by pharmacy personnel and the regulatory system.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.