A study on patients’ application and misconception of topical corticosteroids in Outpatient Pharmacy Department, Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim

Topical corticosteroids are widely use in the treatment of skin inflammatory However, it should be used in a proper way as it has its own risks. Inappropriate usage of topical corticosteroid will cause skin atrophy, striae, skin depigmentation and others. Therefore, this research is conducted to study the patients' application and misconception of topical corticosteroids in Outpatient Pharmacy Department, Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim. A self-constructive 12-item questionnaires which conclude a question on the patient’s background, ways of applying and misconception on topical corticosteroid which has been made to be distributed to any randomly-picked patients who are prescribed with topical steroid at Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim and only 50 completely answered questionnaires were accepted and analyzed. The result from the distributed questionnaire are analyzed and presented in form of table and chart. Based on the research findings, the percentage of patient’s aged between 21 to 40 years old is the who did not apply prescribed topical steroid correctly. It can be concluded that patient’s aged between 21-40 years old were the most frequent group having misconception about topical corticosteroid. In conclusion, most patients aged in range of 21 to 40 years old with almost 36% of them were not using a topical corticosteroid with correct application and having a misconception towards topical corticosteroid that may affect steroid therapy.