Volume 60, Issue 334, January - April 2024

Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of community pharmacists toward chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Muhammad Sufyan², Ayesha Sana¹, Laiba Asif³, Ayesha Nazeer², Muhammad Bilal², Kashif Iqbal^1♦, Najam-us-Sahar¹

¹Department of Pharmacy, IBADAT International University, Islamabad, Pakistan
²Department of Pharmacy, The University of Lahore, Islamabad, Pakistan
³Nowshera Medical college, KPK, Pakistan

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Pharmacy, IBADAT International University, Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Background: Pharmacists and physicians play an essential role in the prevention and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a chronic lung disorder that requires proper care. Patient counseling plays a significant role. This study was carried out primarily to evaluate three different professional traits of community pharmacists regarding COPD in twin cities (Islamabad & Rawalpindi) of Pakistan. First is the knowledge base, second is the behavior, and the third and most important is the practice. We conducted this study because no research has been previously conducted in Pakistan. The current study aims to highlight how crucial it is to assess community pharmacists' abilities for the management of COPD patients. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in twin cities (Islamabad & Rawalpindi) of Pakistan and data was collected from 89 community pharmacists. In this study self-developed and pre-validated questionnaire was used to assess the KAP of community pharmacists regarding COPD. There were two sections in the questionnaire. Section 1 aimed at evaluating the socio-demographic; characteristics of the participants and Section 2 of the questionnaire contains 32 questions to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of community pharmacists. SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis. The relationship between socio-demographic; characteristics and KAP level was assessed using statistical analysis including Student’s t-test and analysis of variance. Results: The response rate of our study was 55% as 89 community pharmacists agreed to participate in this study. The results showed a mean knowledge score of 10.64 ± 1.64 with a mean attitude score of 34.59 ± 3.78 and a mean practice score of 15.87 ± 2.12. The results also revealed different percentages of the main traits, i.e., knowledge score of 25.8%, attitude score of 89.9%, and practice score of 79.8%, achieved by participants. The findings of this study revealed that males have significantly higher mean knowledge scores than females. Also, the female gender as compared to the male (b = -0.684) has significantly decreased knowledge scores. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that most participants have moderate knowledge, good attitude, and good practice toward COPD. Young pharmacists showed a better approach than older pharmacists regarding COPD. Continuing training is still required in the COPD domain to improve the knowledge of community pharmacists

Keywords: COPD, chronic lung disease, COPD in Pakistan, KAP COPD, COPD twin cities

Discovery, 2024, 60, e10d1416

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v60i334.e10d1416

Published: 18 March 2024