Journal of Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology

Abstract

Medications risk and pregnancy: Perception and practice of pharmacists in Gondar town, North West Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study

Abebe Basazn Mekuri, MelkamuNega Melesse, ZemeneDemelashKifle, Mohammedbrhan Abdelwuh

Background: Medications use during the gestation period is common. Pharmacy professionals are the most available health practitioners and have an important role in medication safety during pregnancy. This study aimed to assess the perception and practice of pharmacy professionals towards the risk of medication use during pregnancy in Gondar town.

Method: Across-sectional survey was conducted on pharmacists who are working in community and hospital pharmacies in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia. Data were collected using structured questionnaires measuring perception, and practice of respondents through face-to-face interviews. The collected data were entered and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Descriptive and Student’s t-test analyses were used to describe and assess the association between different variables. The results were presented in numbers, percentages, and mean (± SD and 95% CI).

Results: Out of 137 pharmacy professionals invited to participate, 135 were completed the survey with a 98.5% response rate.The mean age of respondents was 28.64 years with a standard deviation of ± 5.0. The majority of respondents (57.8%) had more than five years of work experience. There was a significant difference observed in the perception and practice of respondents towards the risk of medication use during pregnancy. Among total respondents, 48.4% of them had a poor perception and more than half of the participants (55.6%) agreed that all currently available drugs are safe during pregnancy. More than half of respondents (56.7%) had poor practice and 65.2% of respondents did not ask whether there is pregnancy or not. Additionally, there was a significant difference observed for educational qualification, age, and years of experience of the pharmacists in their score of perception test (p=0.005, p=0.019, and p=0.014, respectively). Similarly, there was a significant difference seen in their score of perception test; sex (p=0.039), age (p=0.043), and working sectors (p=0.001).

Conclusion: This study revealed that there is a wide gap in perception and practice of pharmacists towards the risk of medication use during pregnancy in the study area. This gap can be fulfilled by providing focused educational intervention to all pharmacists.

Published Date: 2020-10-30; Received Date: 2020-10-21