Background In Nigeria, where abortion is legally restricted, individuals seek medication abortion drugs, including misoprostol, directly from pharmacies or drug sellers. However, knowledge of drug sellers or patent medicine vendors (PMVs) dispensation practices and women’s experience with self-management is limited and research suggests poor quality of services. This study assesses the knowledge and practices of PMVs and women’s experiences after a harm reduction intervention to improve the provision of medication abortion using misoprostol. Methods We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis of anonymised logbook data collected from 141 Nigerian PMVs who provided misoprostol for abortion to 4924 clients between February 2015 and July 2018. We conducted a descriptive analysis of self-reported misoprostol dispensation practices with data from a cross-sectional survey of PMVs (n=120) from June 2016 to December 2018. We collected data on women’s experience obtaining misoprostol from 37 PMVs through a cross-sectional survey of women (n=260) from 4–19 June 2018. Results For clients where the misoprostol dose dispensed was recorded (n=3784), 86% of clients were given 800 μg or more misoprostol, pain medication (97%) and a contraceptive method (92%). Most clients with an outcome recorded in the logbook (n=4431) had a complete abortion (86%). Almost all women reported that they would return to the PMV for future services (99%). Conclusions The majority of PMVs dispensed misoprostol in appropriate dosages and provided clients with information on drug administration and methods of contraception. Interventions designed to improve PMVs’ best practices around the provision of abortion care may help ensure the quality of services received by clients. Data are available upon reasonable request. Deidentified client service, client exit interview and sites survey data that underlie the results reported in this article are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author (abiolaa@ipas.org) by researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal following publication.

中文翻译：

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为提高尼日利亚正规诊所之外的安全堕胎护理质量而进行干预后，药品销售商的知识和做法以及客户观点

背景 在法律限制堕胎的尼日利亚，人们直接从药店或药品销售商处寻求药物堕胎药物，包括米索前列醇。然而，对药品销售商或专利药品销售商 (PMV) 的分配实践和女性自我管理经验的了解有限，研究表明服务质量较差。本研究评估了 PMV 的知识和实践以及妇女在减少伤害干预后使用米索前列醇改善药物流产的经验。方法 我们对 2015 年 2 月至 2018 年 7 月期间向 4924 名客户提供米索前列醇用于流产的 141 名尼日利亚 PMV 收集的匿名日志数据进行了回顾性描述性分析。我们利用 2016 年 6 月至 2018 年 12 月的 PMV（n=120）横断面调查数据，对自我报告的米索前列醇分配实践进行了描述性分析。我们通过横断面调查收集了女性从 37 个 PMV 中获得米索前列醇的经验数据2018 年 6 月 4 日至 19 日对女性 (n=260) 的调查。结果 对于记录了米索前列醇剂量的客户 (n=3784)，86% 的客户服用了 800 μg 或更多的米索前列醇、止痛药 (97%) 和避孕方法（92%）。在日志中记录结果的大多数客户 (n=4431) 完全流产 (86%)。几乎所有女性都报告说她们将返回 PMV 接受未来的服务（99%）。结论 大多数 PMV 以适当的剂量分配米索前列醇，并为客户提供有关药物管理和避孕方法的信息。旨在改善 PMV 在提供堕胎护理方面的最佳实践的干预措施可能有助于确保客户获得的服务质量。可根据合理要求提供数据。如果研究人员在发表后提供了方法上合理的建议，则可向通讯作者 (abiolaa@ipas.org) 提出合理要求，以获取作为本文报告结果基础的去识别客户服务、客户退出访谈和现场调查数据。