Assessment of Point-of-Care Diagnostics Utilization for Febrile Illness Management in Community Pharmacies in Ibadan, Oyo State

Community pharmacies are a primary point of healthcare contact for febrile patients in Nigeria, yet their capacity to perform or utilize point-of-care diagnostics for rational treatment decisions remains poorly characterized. This mixed-methods descriptive study assessed the availability, utilization, and quality of point-of-care diagnostic services for febrile illness management in 60 registered community pharmacies in Ibadan South West and Ibadan North local government areas, Oyo State, in the South West geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Data were collected through structured pharmacy assessment surveys, prescription audit of febrile illness cases, and brief semi-structured interviews with pharmacy proprietors. Malaria RDTs were available in 73.3 percent of pharmacies, but were used to guide treatment in only 38.6 percent of febrile illness consultations. Antibiotics were dispensed without a prescription in 78.3 percent of febrile illness presentations, predominantly based on symptom description alone. Typhoid rapid tests were available in 35 percent of pharmacies but had limited operator training for accurate interpretation. Only 11.7 percent of pharmacies maintained any form of diagnostic result register. These findings reveal that point-of-care diagnostics, while increasingly available, are substantially underutilized for guiding treatment decisions in Ibadan community pharmacies. Mandatory pharmacist-performed RDT before antimicrobial dispensing, pharmacist training programs, and diagnostic stewardship frameworks for community pharmacy settings are recommended. Keywords: point-of-care diagnostics, community pharmacy, febrile illness, Ibadan, malaria RDT.