scholarly journals Assessment of awareness and attitude towards counterfeit medicines among pharmacy professionals working in community drug retail outlets in Harar town, Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
pp. 01-11
Author(s):  
Eklas Abdunasir ◽  
Teshome Sosengo ◽  
Frehiwot Amare ◽  
Mohammed Yimam ◽  
Bisrat Hagos

Background: Counterfeit medicines are drugs which are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source. According to the WHO 2017 report, about 1% of prescribed medicines in the developed world and about 10-50% in parts of the developing world are estimated to be counterfeits. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of pharmacy profes-sionals towards counterfeit medicines in Harar town. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among pharmacy professionals found in Harar town, East Ethiopia. All pharmacy professionals working in community drug retail outlets of Harar town was included in the study. Accordingly, 92 pharmacy professionals were included in the study. The data was collected by using self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was prepared in English language. Data was coded, entered and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sci-ence version 22. Then chi-square(x2) test was performed to determine there exists association of so-cio-demographic characters, profession and year of service towards awareness and attitude about counterfeit medicines was investigated using. Result: A total of 92 respondents were included in the study. The majority, 76 (82.6%), of the study participants had information about counterfeit medicine. The 26(28.3%), 42(45.7%) and 24(26%) of the respondents replied that counterfeit medicines have problem of efficacy, safety and cause eco-nomic problem on sellers of genuine drugs respectively. Majority of the study of the study partici-pants were not aware of a way of identification of counterfeit medicines, with only 18(19.6%), 47(51.1%) and 27(29.3%), replied that counterfeit medicines can be identified by its effect, inspec-tion and cost respectively. Majority of the respondents, 60(65.2%), responded that pharmacy profes-sional that knowingly dispense counterfeit medicine are business man /women. Most of the re-spondents, 66(71.7%), replied that pharmacy professionals carry out the business of counterfeit medicines transaction because of big profit obtained from such an activity. gender, profession and year of service in serving as pharmacy professional was found to be significantly associated with awareness towards counterfeit medicines, (p<0.05). Conclusion: Significant proportion of the study participants were not aware of the problems associ-ated with counterfeit medicines as efficacy, safety and economic problems. Majority of the respond-ents still are unaware about ways of identification of counterfeit medicines as inspection, by effica-cy and cost. Keywords: Counterfeit medicines; Awareness; Attitude; Professionals; Drug retail outlets

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (36) ◽  
pp. 3137-3142
Author(s):  
Manali Deb Barma ◽  
Pradeep Kumar R ◽  
Meignana Arumugham I

BACKGROUND Tobacco addiction has emerged as a major public health issue resulting in enormous disability, disease, and death and also acquired the dimension of an epidemic. More people die as a result of the worldwide tobacco epidemic than from tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and malaria combined. India is the second largest consumer of tobacco globally. It is estimated that five million preventable deaths occur every year globally. The trend of consumption of cigarettes is mostly seen among the young adult and adult population. Therefore, this study was done to assess the knowledge, attitude, and pattern of smoking among company and factory employees in Chennai. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted among 102 automobile company employees in Chennai, where a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used. Descriptive statistics, chi square test, Pearson correlation test were used to analyse the data. RESULTS Majority of the participants belonged to the 25 - 34 years age group. About 72.5 % of the participants believed smoking was harmful to their health. A statistically significant association was observed between education level and knowledge on smoking being harmful to health (P > 0.05). A positive correlation was observed among knowledge and attitude; however, both were negatively related to pattern of tobacco use. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge regarding hazards of smoking was high among the study population. However, attitude was found to be satisfactory. Majority of the study participants consumed 10 or less cigarettes per day. Even with a good knowledge towards ill effects of tobacco, good attitude towards quitting tobacco, practice of tobacco smoking was higher among study participants. This implies, tobacco cessation counseling should be made a priority health intervention. KEY WORDS Addiction, Cigarettes, Tobacco, Nicotine, Smoking


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maru Mekie ◽  
Dagne Addisu ◽  
Minale Bezie ◽  
Abenezer Melkie ◽  
Dejen Getaneh ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Preeclampsia has the greatest impact on maternal mortality which complicates nearly a tenth of pregnancies worldwide. It is one of the top five maternal mortality causes and responsible for 16 % of direct maternal death in Ethiopia. Little is known about the level of knowledge and attitude towards preeclampsia in Ethiopia. This study was designed to assess the knowledge and attitude towards preeclampsia and its associated factors in South Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods A multicenter facility-based cross-sectional study was implemented in four selected hospitals of South Gondar Zone among 423 pregnant women. Multistage random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select the study sites and the study participants respectively. Data were entered in EpiData version 3.1 while cleaned and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Adjusted odds ratio with 95 % confidence interval were used to identify the significance of the association between the level of knowledge on preeclampsia and its predictors. Results In this study, 118 (28.8 %), 120 (29.3 %) of the study participants had good knowledge and a positive attitude towards preeclampsia respectively. The likelihood of having good knowledge on preeclampsia was found to be low among women with no education (AOR = 0.22, 95 % CI (0.06, 0.85)), one antenatal care visit (ANC) (AOR = 0.13, 95 % CI (0.03, 0.59)). Whereas, those who booked for ANC in the first trimester (AOR = 6.59, 95 % CI (1.43, 30.33)), gave the last birth at a health facility (AOR = 2.61, 955 CI (1.03, 6.61)), and experienced a complication during previous births (AOR = 3.67, 95 % CI (1.78, 7.57)) were more likely to be knowledgeable on preeclampsia. Conclusions No formal education and not attending four ANC visits were associated with poor knowledge of preeclampsia. While participants who visited health facilities during the first trimester, who gave birth at health facilities, and those who experienced a complication in previous births were more likely to be knowledgeable on preeclampsia. Improving the numbers of ANC visits and encouraging facility delivery are important measures to improve women’s knowledge on preeclampsia. Health education regarding preeclampsia risk factors, symptoms, and complications shall be emphasized.


Author(s):  
Anies Dewi Wirati Indraswari ◽  
Abdul Aziz ◽  
Meircurius Dwi Condro Surboyo

Abstract Introduction The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has also hit Indonesia. Until September 2020, cases continued to increase with the highest number in Jakarta. The right behavior needs to be followed to prevent COVID-19; this aspect has a strong relationship with knowledge and attitude. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of hospitalized patients' families in Fatmawati Hospital, Jakarta, in an effort to prevent COVID-19. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 respondents using a self-administered questionnaire to assess their knowledge, attitude, and behavior about COVID-19. The relationship between knowledge, attitude, and behavior was analyzed using the chi-square test with p < 0.05. Results Most of the participants responded to the questionnaire showing a good knowledge, attitude, and behavior related to the efforts to prevent COVID-19. No relationship was present between knowledge, attitude, and behavior in an effort to prevent COVID-19 (p = 0.414 and p = 0.165). Conclusion The hospitalized patients' families exhibited an adequate level of knowledge, attitude, and preventive behaviors toward COVID-19.


2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Syafruddin Haris ◽  
Sri Sofyani ◽  
Bidasari Lubis ◽  
Munar Lubis ◽  
Syahril Pasaribu ◽  
...  

Background Malaria is still considered to be an important healthproblem in Indonesia. Malaria has been found in islands withdifferent degree of endemicity. Behavior of the community isone of the factors affecting the incidence of malaria in MandailingNatal district.Objective To know the parental knowledge, attitude, and practiceamong parents whose children suffered from malaria or not.Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in six primaryschools and one health centre in October 2004. Subjects wereparents whose children were malaria positive and malaria negativebased on laboratory examination. Sample size was 85 parents foreach group. Selected respondents were interviewed usingstructured questionnaire. Degree of knowledge, attitude, andpractice on malaria were established using scoring system withinthree categories: good, less, and poor. Data were collected andpresented using chi-square and P<0.05 was considered as a levelof significant.Results The mean age of 85 parents whose children were positivemalaria, was 38.47 years (SD 6.67) and the mean age of thosewhose children were negative malaria was 40.41 years (SD 8.05).Parent’s education level was 62.9% primary school and 90% oftheir children were school-aged. There were significant differenceson parental knowledge, attitude and practice in each group(P<0.05). There was also a significant correlation betweenoccupation and knowledge, but not between parental educationlevel and parental age. Parental knowledge and attitude on theincidence of malaria in Mandailing Natal district were good,though their practice were poor.Conclusion There are significant differences on parentalknowledge, attitude and practice, between parents whose childrenwere positive and negative for malaria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-163
Author(s):  
Mohd Shaiful Ehsan Shalihin ◽  
Nuria Syafira Abd Muttalib ◽  
Nur Syahirah Azmi ◽  
Zahra Najwa Mohd Zin

Comprehensive care towards geriatric health can be sustained by having good knowledge and attitude among the providers. Hence, this research aims to measure the knowledge and attitude of the final year medical students towards geriatric health and determine the associated factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the students using structured questionnaires of Geriatric-Attitude-Scale and Palmore-Facts-on-Aging-Quiz was used. Data was analysed using Mann Whitney U test, Chi square test and Spearman correlation coefficient analysis for the association between the score and studied variables. Median score of students’ knowledges is at 14.00 (IQR 13.00) and mean score for attitude is 48.52 (+5.53) respectively. Place of residence (P= 0.01) and presence of grandparents (P= 0.04) were the significant factors that affected knowledge of students towards geriatrics while number of siblings (P= 0.05) influenced attitudes of students towards geriatrics. Improvement of current geriatric curriculum should be done with more refined implementation of gerontology course in the basic medical learning.


Author(s):  
Dnyanesh Limaye ◽  
Gerhard Fortwengel ◽  
Vaidehi Limaye ◽  
Aishwarya Bhasi ◽  
Aditya Dhule ◽  
...  

Background: India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world. The Indian epidemic is characterized by low levels in the general population and elevated concentrations among high-risk groups. The present study was planned to determine the awareness of HIV among students from Mumbai University.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among students from Mumbai University, India during May–June 2017. Two hundred and fifty students were approached to participate in the study of which 199 agreed to participate (males: 132; females: 67). Pretested questionnaire was distributed and collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.Results: Study participants had high knowledge (86%) and attitude score (87%). There was no significant difference between males and female participants for attitude and knowledge, except for one question regarding knowledge about HIV transmission via breastfeeding to child.Conclusions: Present study showed that there are no misconceptions or negative attitudes regarding HIV among students. A longitudinal study with a larger sample size across India is recommended for further investigation.


Author(s):  
Anaswara S. Asok ◽  
Pooja Akoijam ◽  
Avantika Gupta ◽  
Brogen Singh Akoijam

Background: Learning problems significantly interfere with academic activities that require reading, mathematical or writing skills. In India 10-14% of children have specific learning disability. The teacher with adequate knowledge of learning disabilities and skills or competencies can do better justice to the children than teacher with general pedagogy backgrounds. The study aimed to assess the teacher’s knowledge and attitude towards learning disabilities and to determine the association between knowledge and attitude with their background characteristics.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 181 teachers of both government and private schools of Bishnupur. Data collected using self-administered questionnaires assessing the knowledge and attitude. Data entered in IBM SPSS 21. Data was expressed using descriptive statistics like frequencies and percentages. Chi-square test   was used to check significance between proportions.Results: Data was collected from 181 teachers. Mean age of participants was 42.7±1 and 59.1% of them worked in govt. schools and 40.9% in private. 48.1% of them had adequate knowledge on learning disabilities. Majority (93.9%) had favourable attitude. Association between type of school the teachers taught and knowledge was found to be significant (p<0.05). There was no significant association between attitude with any of the socio-demographic variables.Conclusions: More than half of the teachers had inadequate knowledge on learning disabilities while majority of them had favourable attitude. Teachers belonging to govt. schools had better knowledge on learning disabilities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Abate Dargie Wubetu ◽  
Elyas Admasu Basha ◽  
Nigus Alemnew Engidaw

Background. Epilepsy is a disease of the brain defined by any of the following conditions. First, at least two unprovoked (or reflex) seizures occurring greater than 24 hours apart, and secondly, the presence of one unprovoked (or reflex) seizure and a probability of further seizures. Due to persisted misunderstandings and negative attitudes, individuals living with epilepsy live with a poor quality of life. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the community general knowledge about epilepsy and attitude towards person living with epilepsy and its associated factors. Methods. A community-based cross-sectional study conducted from March 10 to June 10, 2019, to assess the community general knowledge and attitude towards epilepsy and its associated factors. Data were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and transported to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Results. 596 study participants participated in a response rate of 98%. Among the study participants, 43.6% (95% CI: 39.6, 47.5) had poor knowledge and 41.3% (95% CI: 37.4, 45.1) had an unfavorable attitude. Lack of modern education, married, never witnessed a seizure, and not hearing the term epilepsy showed statistically significant association with poor knowledge about epilepsy. Lack of modern education, earning less than 1000 Ethiopian birr, not witnessing seizure, not hearing the term epilepsy, and half to one-hour walking time from health facility variables showed statistically significant association with the unfavorable attitude about epilepsy. Conclusions. The current study revealed that nearly half of Debre Berhan dwellers have deficits in terms of general knowledge about epilepsy and attitude towards a person living with epilepsy. Poor knowledge about epilepsy and unfavorable attitude towards a person living with epilepsy are likely to have an important impact on stigmatization and treatment-seeking behavior, and it should be given due attention. It would be better if health educators give special emphasis for the individuals with predictors of poor knowledge and unfavorable attitude.


F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1866
Author(s):  
Koustuv Dalal ◽  
Reshma Parvin Nuri ◽  
Ming Shinn Lee, ◽  
Chao Kuang Lin ◽  
Mervyn Gifford ◽  
...  

Background: This study attempted to explore the women’s attitude towards child physical abuse in relation to the respondent’s background factors, personal issues and autonomy. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 18,749 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) using 2010 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey. Chi-square tests and bivariate analyses were performed. Results: A significant proportion of women supported beating physically abusing sons (69.2%) and daughters (67.2%). Rural, non-Buddhist, those with no or primary education, poverty, seasonal or occasional employment seem to be risk factor for supporting child physical abuse by women (in bivariate analysis). Age, education and household economic status of the women are significantly relevant for child physical abuse (in bivariate analysis). Women who came from male-headed households more often supported beating their children. Female autonomy is an important factor for child physical abuse. Women who justify physical abuse towards wives were also generally supportive of child physical abuse. Conclusions: The current study provides knowledge about maternal factors such as age, education, economic status, rural/urban dwelling, two or more lifetime partners and autonomy in the supporting of beating sons and daughters. Further attention needs to be paid to increasing women’s education and autonomy in Cambodian family life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-147
Author(s):  
Maria A.L Dawe ◽  
Petrus Romeo ◽  
Enjelita Ndoen

Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is an endemic disease commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions. Community behavior and the role of health workers in DHF prevention significantly influence DHF incidence. This study purposed to determine the relationship between community knowledge and attitude and the role of health workers with DHF prevention in the working area of the Bakunase Public Health Center in 2020. The study design was descriptive-analytic with a cross-sectional study approach. The research sample was 99 respondents, taken by simple random sampling technique. Analysis of research data used the chi-square test. The results showed that knowledge (p = 0.003), attitude (p = 0.000), and the role of health workers (p = 0.004) were related to DHF prevention. Most respondents had poor knowledge but showed a positive attitude towards DHF prevention. Intensive counseling on DHF prevention is essential to ensure active community participation in DHF prevention activities.


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