Assessment of community pharmacist's involvement in health promotion and education activities of patients in Khartoum, 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Health promotion enables people to gain better control and improve their health and overall well-being. An important aspect of health promotion is community action and participation through health education which encourages socioeconomic and cultural activities and improves environmental determinants of health. Justifications: Sudan national guidelines for good pharmacy practice in community pharmacy 2016 state that community pharmacists should have a role in health promotion in community, so researches must be done to assess achievement in this issue. Objectives: The objective was to assess the extent of the pharmacists' involvement in counseling patients about health promotion and education topics, their preparation to counsel patients in health promotion and education topics, and their perceived success in changing the patients' health behavior. Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out from March to April 2020 among community pharmacists in Khartoum locality. Results: A total of 150 community pharmacists who participated in the study showed that the most important purpose of consumers' visits to community pharmacy was related to seeking pharmaceutical advice about drug dosage, indication, availability, and side effects which were ranked first, second, third, and fourth, respectively. In the area of the pharmacists' perceptions on their preparedness to counsel patients on health-related behaviors, the perceived preparedness was highest for counseling on taking drugs as prescribed/directed (mean [standard deviation (SD)]; 4.5 [0.9]) and knowledge about drug contents and side effects (mean [SD]; 4.2 [1.1]). The community pharmacists perceived success in helping patients to change their health-related behaviors. Conclusion: The majority of participants have a positive attitude toward counseling the population on health behaviors and indicated their willingness to learn more about health promotion.