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Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding drug interactions among community pharmacists

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Abstract

Aim

This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice that community pharmacists of Lebanon hold with regard to checking for drug interactions.

Subjects and methods

This cross-sectional study involved data collected from 89 anonymous and self-administered survey questionnaires by community pharmacists from community pharmacies dispersed amongst the six governorates of Lebanon. It also entailed individual interviews with a self-selected few. Knowledge, attitude, and practice with regard to drug interactions were collected.

Results

There is a large gap in the knowledge of the community pharmacists about drug interactions with other drugs, food, and herbs. When searching for interactions, pharmacists were found to refer mostly to the internet, drug applications, or colleagues. Their attitudes were positive and coherent with understanding their role in clarifying interactions when prescribing drugs; nevertheless, their practices were suboptimal.

Conclusion

Community pharmacists around Lebanon are aware of their role and responsibility concerning drug interactions though only a few do so in their daily work. Suggested interventions include further training and workshops to refresh the memories of these pharmacists on different interactions, and implementing software programs in pharmacies to detect these interactions on the spot.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants for their time and contribution, Dr. Pascale Salameh from the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists for her expert advice, and Nour Naji and Mona Moukaddem for their assistance in survey collection.

The authors would also like to thank the American University of Beirut Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine for the collaborative “research methods” course to second-year medical students from which this project emanated.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Nour Makkaoui, Adham Halaoui, Zahraa Atoui, Hiba Siblini, Salim Habib & Hussein Awada

  2. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Nathalie K. Zgheib

Authors
  1. Nour Makkaoui
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  2. Adham Halaoui
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  3. Zahraa Atoui
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  4. Hiba Siblini
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  5. Salim Habib
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  6. Hussein Awada
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  7. Nathalie K. Zgheib
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by all authors. Data analysis was performed by Nour Makkaoui, Zahraa Atoui, and Nathalie K. Zgheib. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nour Makkawi, Adham Halaoui, and Zahraa Atoui, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nathalie K. Zgheib.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the American University of Beirut under the following number: Pharmaco.NZ.25/SBS-2017-0549. All participants were informed about the purpose of the study and the option to withdraw at any time. They all orally consented to take part of the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Makkaoui, N., Halaoui, A., Atoui, Z. et al. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding drug interactions among community pharmacists. J Public Health (Berl.) 29, 1357–1363 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01252-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01252-9

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