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. 2022 Apr 29:10:771308.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.771308. eCollection 2022.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community Pharmacists Toward Non-pharmaceutical Products in Saudi Arabia

Dalia Almaghaslah  1
Affiliations

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community Pharmacists Toward Non-pharmaceutical Products in Saudi Arabia

Dalia Almaghaslah. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Community pharmacy is a rapidly changing sector in Saudi Arabia. Customers visit local community pharmacies for a variety of reasons including disease-related advice, buying OTC medication, cosmetic products and re-filling a prescription for a chronic illness. The current study was conducted to fill the gap in the literature regarding community pharmacists' knowledge, attitude and practice toward non-pharmaceutical products.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design. A total of 211 community pharmacists working in the Asir region, Saudi Arabia were included. The questionnaire was adopted from a previous study with the same purpose.

Results: Products sold in community pharmacies were mainly pharmaceutical products (69.7%) compared to 30.3% non-pharmaceutical products. The most commonly sold non-pharmaceutical products were mother and baby products (26%) and skin care products (19%). Pharmacists showed good mean knowledge (3.96 out of 5), mean positive attitude (3.79 out of 5) and mean positive practice (3.32 out of 5).

Conclusion: Community pharmacists showed considerable knowledge pertaining to non-pharmaceutical products. Respondents demonstrated positive attitudes toward the non-pharmaceutical products and were interested in expanding their knowledge on the topic through continuing education. Additionally, they showed social accountability by assuming responsibility for providing patient counseling on non-pharmaceutical products.

Keywords: KAP (knowledge; Saudi Arabia (KSA); attitude and practice); community pharmacy; non-pharmaceutical products.

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Conflict of interest statement

The reviewer AA declared a shared affiliation with the author DA, to the handling editor at the time of review. The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bestselling non-pharmaceutical products sold in community pharmacy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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