150 Research Article THE ACCURACY AND QUALITY OF HOUSEHOLD SPOONS AND ENCLOSED DOSING DEVICES USED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF ORAL LIQUID MEDICATIONS IN GHANA MARCEL T BAYOR *1 , SAMUEL L KIPO 1 , KWABENA OFORIKWAKYE 1 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. Email: mtbayor@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Administering the right doses of oral liquid medications is crucial to achieving therapeutic goals. These doses are measured with household spoons and dosing devices enclosed in product packages. We investigated the types of household spoons currently available, the types and extent of inclusion of dosing devices in oral liquid product packages and assessed the accuracy, quality, reliability and acceptability of the household spoons and enclosed devices in dosing oral liquid medications. Close to half (46 %) of orthodox and almost all (97 %) herbal oral liquid remedies in the Ghanaian market did not have enclosed dosing devices and will require the use of other devices mostly household spoons to deliver the required doses in their administration. Many people (95 %) used household spoons in dosing oral liquid medications and some (39 %) actually preferred them to enclosed dosing devices. The household spoons were mostly teaspoons and dessertspoons; tablespoons were very rare. Aside other defects, all the categories of household spoons had maximum volumes significantly different from; 5 ml (teaspoonful) (4.3 ± 1.7), 10 ml (dessertspoonful) (8.25 ± 2.5) and 15 ml (tablespoonful) (13.5 ± 1.2), respectively (P<0.05); hence were inaccurate and can lead to oral liquid medication dosing errors. The medicine cup was the most common (80 %) dosing device and measured relatively large volumes (5‐20 ml) which were not significantly different (P<0.05) from the expected calibrations. The enclosed medicinal spoons (12 %) had defects similar to their household counterparts and measured volumes (5‐10 ml) which were different from expected (P<0.05). The enclosed oral droppers and syringes (8 %) measured volumes (≤5 ml) more accurately. The oral syringe was the most accurate and convenient dosing device. The results strongly support the assertions that household spoons are inaccurate and their use for dosing oral liquid medications is anachronistic and should be discouraged. Keywords: Household spoons enclosed dosing devices, oral liquid medications, dosing errors. INTRODUCTION Oral liquid pharmaceutical dosage forms are widely accepted and used, especially in paediatric and geriatric care. Their efficacy and effectiveness depend on the right dosaging. The dose in these products is determined and measured in terms of a certain volume of the product. With the advent of modern medicine, household spoons were established as standards used for measuring the doses of oral liquid medications, where the teaspoonful, dessertspoonful and tablespoonful were designated and accepted to measure 5 ml, 10 ml and 15 ml of liquid product, respectively 1,2 . Since then, the shapes, sizes, forms and make of these household spoons, especially in the Ghanaian society, have varied tremendously with likely consequences of dosing errors. In recent times the inclusion of various forms of dosing devices in oral liquid medication packages is aimed at improving dosing efficiency 3,4 . However, some products including herbal remedies do not come with enclosed dosing devices. As such, instructions are still being given to patients involving the use of household spoons as measures for oral liquid medications. The current research therefore, sought to determine the types of household spoons currently available, the extent of inclusion of dosing devices in oral liquid product packages and to assess the quality, accuracy, reliability and acceptability of the current household spoons in Ghana and the manufacturers enclosed measures in delivering the required doses of oral liquid medications. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials A random sample of 1000 household spoons [i.e. 500 teaspoons and 500 non‐teaspoons (dessert and tablespoons)] made of plastics, aluminum or mostly stainless steel were obtained from various homes, markets, chop bars, schools and restaurants in the Ho, Accra and Kumasi. Also, 500 dosing devices (i.e. 200 medicine cups, cylinders and wells; 200 medicine spoons and 100 medicine pipettes, droppers and syringes) found enclosed in oral liquid medications packages were randomly sampled from 100 International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Vol 2, Suppl 1, 2010