scholarly journals Awareness and Attitudes of the Pakistani Population With Regard to Physician–Pharmaceutical Company Interaction: A Cross-Sectional Study

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Hassan Gillani ◽  
Sumaira Omer ◽  
Hafsa Arshad ◽  
Wenchen Liu ◽  
Chen Chen ◽  
...  

Objective: To determine the awareness and attitudes of the Pakistani population regarding physician–pharmaceutical company interactions.Methods: The data were collected from primary health care clinics and pharmacy outlets located within cities of six randomly selected districts of the Punjab Province. Those individuals (age ≥18 years) who have just completed their visit to the physician and well understand Urdu language were approached. Descriptive analysis was performed for all variables by using SPSS (IBM version 26).Results: A total of 3,852 participants fully completed the study out of 4,301 (response rate 89.5%). Of those, 30.9% were female; two-thirds (66.7%) were aware of drug representatives’ visits to clinics. The majority were aware of pharmaceutical company material presence (or absence) in the physicians’ rooms (56.6%), company items with logos (66.8%), patient education materials (73.4%), and 60.8% thought that receiving gifts from companies was “wrong/unethical” practice for physicians, which was lower in comparison to other professions such as judges to accept gifts from lawyers (65.6%) and professional sports umpires to acknowledge gifts (64.3%). A minority said that they have lower trust on physicians for using drug company notepads or pens (16.7%), going on trips sponsored by the company (16.7%), accepting gifts <15,000 PKR (90.3 US$) (26.7%), and accepting gifts >15,000 PKR (90.3 US$) (40.0%).Conclusion: Survey participants were well aware of physician–pharmaceutical company interactions. Participants were more knowledgeable regarding the pharmaceutical company presence (or absence) in physicians’ offices than about gift-related practices of physicians. Trust on the physician was not affected by small gifts but by the large gifts.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ra'fat Ali ◽  
Abdullah Shadeed ◽  
Hasan Fitian ◽  
Sa'ed Zyoud

Abstract Background: Failure to properly administer drugs to children at home may cause adverse events, which makes it a challenging job for parents or caregivers. The main goal of this study was to investigate the problems and difficulties that parents or caregivers faced when administering oral drugs to their children at home. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire consisting of ‘yes/no’ and multiple-response questions to assess parents' experiences and problems with administering medication to their children at home. Data was collected from parents who visited primary health care centres in Nablus. Descriptive analysis was conducted to describe the characteristics of the sample. Results: We interviewed 420 participants. 91.9% of the participants used drugs without prescription from a doctor, and the most commonly used non-prescription medicines were antipyretics (n=386, 100%), influenza drugs (n=142, 36.8%), cough drugs (n=109, 28.2%) and antibiotics (n= 102, 26.4%). The study showed that 21.7% of parents used teaspoon and 7.1% used tablespoon in administering liquid medications to their children. When the children refused taking liquid medications, almost two-thirds of the participants (65.7%) insisted their children take them, 21.5% mixed it with juice, 5.2% mixed it with food and 4.7% mixed it with milk. 12.4% of the participants reported that they gave drugs in doses higher than prescribed by the doctor to treat their children more quickly. Also, our study revealed that 80.5% of the parents gave medications at incorrect intervals. Conclusions: This study has shown that there is a proportion of caregivers or parents who administer oral drugs to their children wrongly, which may involve giving them at the wrong intervals or doses, using incorrect instruments, or mixing them with food, juice or milk. The development of educational programs that will provide parents with education about medication administration is therefore recommended.


Author(s):  
Priyanka Sharma ◽  
Anita Khokhar

Abstract Background: There has been a reported increase in cases of domestic violence during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, however systematic research data is still unavailable. This study was conducted to find out domestic violence prevalence and coping strategies among married adults during lockdown due to COVID-19 in India. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among married men and women in the month of April 2020. Data regarding socio-demographic profile, domestic violence and coping strategies employed during lockdown was collected thorough google forms. 97.9% forms were completely filled by the respondents. Descriptive analysis was done. Results: Out of 94 study participants, about 7.4% (n=7) had faced domestic violence during lockdown. Out of these 7 participants, about 85.7% (n=6) reported increased frequency of domestic violence during lockdown. About half of the victims chose to ignore it (57.1%, n=4) or used yoga/meditation (42.9%, n=3) to cope. Conclusion: With about 7.4% study participants facing domestic violence during lockdown, it is necessary to study its detailed epidemiology in pandemics so that interventions like helpline numbers, screening of patients during tele-consultation, etc. which can be delivered even during lockdown with the help of healthcare and frontline workers could be devised to address this problem.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 343-356
Author(s):  
Ana Maseda ◽  
José Carlos Millán-Calenti ◽  
Julia Carpente ◽  
José Luis Rodríguez-Villamil ◽  
Carmen de Labra

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55
Author(s):  
Zoriah Aziz ◽  
Chong Nyuk Jet ◽  
Sameerah Shaikh Abdul Rahman

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a lifelong learning approach to maintain and enhance professional competencies. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the pharmacists’ preferred CPD activities and barriers to CPD participation. A survey instrument was distributed to all government pharmacists (N=3876) in Malaysia. The response rate was 29.2 %. The majority of the pharmacists (92%) believed that engaging in CPD would improve their performances in their current role. Almost 90% of the respondents preferred to participate in CPD activities associated with continuing education such as workshops and conferences attendance. Barriers to CPD participation were current job constraints, lack of time, and accessibility in terms of travel and cost. It is important to address these issues before the implementation of mandatory CPD for pharmacists in Malaysia.


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