AWARENESS OF PHARMACISTS TOWARDS ASPARTAME SIDE EFFECTS IN KHARTOUM CITY, SUDAN
Objective: Aspartame (or APM) is the name for an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in many foods and beverages. Aspartame is the methyl ester of a phenylalanine/aspartic acid dipeptide. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener. It is 200 times sweeter than sugar in typical concentrations, without the high-energy value of sugar. Aim of current study was to study the awareness of pharmacists about aspartame side effects. Materials and methods: This study was carried in greater Khartoum, questionnaire for pharmacists to see the consumption and the awareness of them to these interactions during the period from September 2014 to November 2014.Study was conducted among practicing pharmacists. A pre designed and tested questionnaire were used for each category to collect the data. From the hospitals manager. Results: 32% were aware of the number of aspartame products. Pharmacists when asked how many patients purchase aspartame products per day, answers showed that 74.5% ranged between 1-10 patients per day, About pharmacist’s expectations to develop side effects due to aspartame, use regularly showed that 75% agreed that it would. pharmacists claimed that aspartame can or worsen a certain list of some diseases in which that diabetes represented 30%, Alzheimer’s 28% , attention deficit disorder 17.3% , psychological disorders. Conclusion: The majority of community pharmacists expect side effects can be developed due to aspartame regular use by patients but majority didn’t know what are the exact side effects and the exact diseases that can be worsened when using aspartame. Peer Review History: Received 11 June 2020; Revised 28 June; Accepted 3 July, Available online 15 July 2020 UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.0/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Name: Prof. Dr. Hassan A.H. Al-Shamahy Affiliation: Sana'a University, Yemen E-mail: [email protected] Name: Dr. Nada Farrag Affiliation: Misr International University Egypt E-mail: [email protected] Comments of reviewer(s): Similar Articles: AWARENESS AMONGST YOUTH ABOUT USE AND ABUSE OF STEROIDS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN