[Relevance of a guide in Quechua on rational use of medicines in Andean students of health sciences in Peru].

Objective: To elaborate a guide in Quechua on rational use of medicines and evaluate its relevance in the level of knowledge of Andean health science students. To develop a guide in Quechua on the rational use of medicines and evaluate its relevance in the level of knowledge of Andean health science students through educational intervention.

Methods: A quantitative, longitudinal, prospective, applicative, quasi-experimental study with single-group pretest and posttest. The relevance of the guide in Quechua was analyzed with Student's t-test, Wilcoxon's t-test, Kruskall-Wallis and McNemar's test, while the magnitude of the effect by means of biserial correlation (r_b), Cohen's d and epsilon squared (Ɛ²).

Results: A total of 115 students participated in the study, mostly 96 (83.5%) females; after the educational intervention the level of knowledge rose from low to high level, the frequency of passing students increased, the intra-group analysis showed increase in the average grade of the students of the 03 schools, from 10.8±2.3 pre-test to 14.5±3.2 post-test, (p-value =0.001), with high effect magnitude (r_b>0.5), mainly in the schools of Pharmacy and Obstetrics. Mainly in the schools of Pharmacy and Obstetrics. At the inter-group level, increase was also found among the grades of the 03 schools with large effect size (χ²=11.9; gl=2; p-value = 0.003, Ɛ²= 0.11), especially among the students of the schools of Pharmacy and Nursing (p-value =0.009), as well as between Obstetrics and Nursing (p-value =0.002).

Conclusion: The guide in Quechua composed of 03 modules: self-medication, rational use of medicines, antibiotics and bacterial resistance was relevant because it increased the level of knowledge of the students of the three schools.