Medical Devices-Related Counseling Practices Among Community Pharmacists: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study from Saudi Arabia

The awareness among Saudi people regarding the good and safe practice of drug disposal is fairly low. Community pharmacists’ potential toward drugs disposal directions and practice are not emphasized enough. Therefore, a cross sectional study was conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to evaluate the practice, awareness and beliefs of community pharmacists about disposal of unused drugs. Out of 360 subjects who participated in the study, more than 70% returned the unused drugs to the pharmaceutical distributors. Around 80% of the participants confirmed the risk of environmental damage due to the inappropriate disposal of drugs, and 87.5% of them held themselves responsible for preventing such risk. Approximately 85% of surveyed pharmacists believed community pharmacies to be an appropriate location for the collection of unused drugs. There was no significant association between the community pharmacists’ age group and years of practice as community pharmacists with either the awareness of unused medication disposal on environmental hazards, or the beliefs about the appropriate location for collecting unused drugs (p > 0.05). The awareness and proactive accountable responsibility, along with community pharmacists’ belief of appointing pharmacies to collect unused drugs, strongly support the institution of drug take-back programs.

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Involvement of Community Pharmacists in Public Health Services in Asir Region, Saudi Arabia: A Cross‐sectional Study

International Journal of Clinical Practice ◽

10.1111/ijcp.14940 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mona Almanasef ◽

Dalia Almaghaslah ◽

Geetha Kandasamy ◽

Rajalakshimi Vasudevan ◽

Sadia Batool

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Saudi Arabia ◽

Health Services ◽

Community Pharmacists ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Public Health Services ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Asir Region

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The Use of Topical Clobetasol among the Women in Hail Region, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-sectional Study on Knowledge and Practice

Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International ◽

10.9734/jpri/2019/v31i630319 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Mukhtar Ansari ◽

Subish Palaian ◽

Mohamed Izham Mohamed Ibrahim ◽

Pathiyil Ravi Shankar

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Adverse Effects ◽

Topical Steroid ◽

Community Pharmacists ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The Face ◽

Knowledge And Practice ◽

Harmful Effects

Aims: The current study aimed to evaluate female consumers’ knowledge and practice about harmful effects of topical clobetasol applied on the face for cosmetic purposes. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Randomly selected community pharmacies, well known cosmetic shops and shopping malls of Hail region, Saudi Arabia from March 2018 to June 2018. Methodology: We included 391 participants who only used ‘clobetasol’ as a topical steroid at the time of interview, responses were collected as per the study tool and analyzed using SPSS for Windows, Version 16.0. Chicago, SPSS Inc.. Results: Relatives (28.1%), friends (25.6%) and community pharmacists (15.6%) contributed significantly towards using topical clobetasol cream. In 86.2% of the cases, the pharmacists who dispensed clobetasol did not inform the consumer about the harmful effects. Purchasing the cream without prescription (P = 0.025) was significantly associated with age. In the study, 41.9 % of the females experienced adverse effects, with the commonest one being hair growth on face (23%) followed by dermatrophy (14.8%); with a significant association with frequency of use (p<0.001). Conclusion: There was haphazard use of topical clobetasol by females and they were unaware of the adverse effects. Over-the-counter availability of topical clobetasol, lack of knowledge about harmful effects, and lack of counseling on its safety profile by community pharmacists and other healthcare professionals are mainly responsible for its misuse and harmful consequences.

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