Abstract
Background Studies in international literature have shown that Community Pharmacists can make considerable impact in controlling cardiovascular disease risk factors, especially hypertension. In Nigeria, there are no studies on the knowledge of CVD risk factors by Community Pharmacists and their practice of primary prevention. Objective To assess the knowledge of CVD risk factors and practice of primary prevention of CVD amongst Nigerian community pharmacists. Setting Community Pharmacists in Lagos, Nigeria. Methods This cross-sectional study involved 168 Community Pharmacists. Their knowledge of CVD risk factors was assessed with the Heart Disease Fact Questionnaire. Their opportunistic screening practices for CVD risk factors (primary prevention) were also assessed. Main outcome measures Knowledge of CVD risk factors and practice of primary CVD prevention. Results The mean age of the participating pharmacists was 41.7 (± 11.2) years and 87 (51.8%) of them were males. The median number of years of practice was 9.0 (3–15) years. Mean knowledge score was 22.1 (± 3.0) with 154 (91.7%) of the subjects scoring above 70%. An average of 95.5% of the participants correctly identified hypertension, smoking, dyslipidaemia, obesity, physical inactivity and diabetes as CVD risk factors. Eighty-one (48.2%) had good practice of primary CVD prevention. Conclusion: This study shows that Community Pharmacists in Nigeria have very good knowledge level of CVD risk factors and almost 50% of them practised primary prevention of CVD.
Highlights
Studies in international literature have shown that Community Pharmacists can make considerable impact in controlling cardiovascular disease risk factors, especially hypertension
In our study the knowledge of these risk factors was independent of age, gender, location of practice, duration of practice and possession of additional qualifications and corroborates findings from similar studies [23, 24]. This high level of knowledge displayed by the participants in this study may provide a basis for a feasibility study on the effectiveness of Community Pharmacists in Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor screening in Nigeria
Our study further demonstrated that the participants displayed good knowledge of both the behavioural and biologic risk factors for CVD
Summary
The leadership of the Association was approached for permission to carry out the study on their members Their members were invited to participate in the study through a letter written by the researcher. To further enhance participation rate a copy of this letter was pasted on the Association’s Notice Boards in the six zones selected for the members to read. One hundred and ninety pharmacists agreed to participate in the study but only 168 completed and returned their questionnaire giving a response rate of 88.4%. The questionnaire was initially pretested among a group of twenty Community Pharmacists in Lagos. Their responses were used to fine tune the final version used for the study
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