Pediatric therapeutics and medicine administration in resource-poor settings: A review of barriers and an agenda for interdisciplinary approaches to improving outcomes

Sienna R. Craig, Lisa V. Adams, Stephen P. Spielberg and Benjamin Campbell

Social Science & Medicine, 2009, vol. 69, issue 11, 1681-1690

Abstract: The lack of affordable, available pediatric drug formulations presents serious global health challenges. This article argues that successful pharmacotherapy for children demands an interdisciplinary approach. There is a need to develop new medicines to address acute and chronic illnesses of children, but also to produce formulations of essential medicines to optimize stability, bioavailability, palatability, cost, accurate dosing and adherence. This, in turn, requires an understanding of the social ecologies in which treatment occurs. Understanding health worker, caregiver and patient practices, limitations, and expectations with regard to medicines is crucial to guiding effective drug development and administration. Using literature on pediatric tuberculosis as a reference, this review highlights sociocultural, pharmacological, and structural barriers that impede the delivery of medicines to children. It serves as a basis for the development of an intensive survey of patient, caregiver, and health care worker understandings of, and preferences for, pediatric formulations in three East African countries.

Keywords: Pediatric; drug; formulations; Pharmaceutical; practice; Social; use; of; medicines; Child; health; Tuberculosis; Review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00553-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:11:p:1681-1690

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().