Abstract
The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has increased with the fast growing of aging population, thereby posing great challenges to provision of care for AD patients. Pharmacists play a vital role in the management of AD; this includes recognizing early symptoms of AD, providing medication counseling to AD patients and their caretakers, and identifying potential adverse drug reactions. A comprehensive understanding of the disease progression, as well as the pharmacological therapy, is essential to provide effective care to AD patients. The level of knowledge about AD among the pharmacists, however, remains unknown. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge on AD among the pharmacists in public hospitals and health clinics and its correlates. A clear picture of the characteristics associated with different levels of knowledge could facilitate the targeted re-training of pharmacists. The 30-item validated Alzheimer disease knowledge scale (ADKS) tool was pilot-tested and used in this cross-sectional study. All pharmacists, from nine public hospitals and seven public health clinics in the State of Selangor, Malaysia, were invited to participate in this cross-sectional survey. The ADKS score was computed and compared across demographics characteristics. A total of 445 pharmacists responded to the survey. These pharmacists had a moderate overall score in ADKS; nevertheless, high scores were recorded in the domains of treatment management and care giving. No difference in AD knowledge was found among pharmacists worked in public hospitals and health clinics, except for the domain of care giving (p = 0.033). Ethnicity and age group were independent predictors of ADKS score in the current study. The pharmacists in the current study had moderate AD knowledge. On-going education and training programme on AD, in particular the domains other than treatment management and care giving, should be provided to the pharmacists to ensure delivery of quality care to AD patients.
Highlights
More than 46 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the number is expected to increase to 131.5 million by 2050, with the majority are from low and middle income countries (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2015)
This study revealed that the pharmacists from both public hospitals and health clinics in the state of Selangor had moderate knowledge on AD
No difference in AD knowledge was noted among the pharmacists working in public hospitals and health clinics except in the care giving domain
Summary
More than 46 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the number is expected to increase to 131.5 million by 2050, with the majority are from low and middle income countries (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2015). The prevalence of dementia in Malaysia is estimated at 0.126% and 0.454% in 2020 and 2050, respectively (Rees et al, 2006; Tey et al, 2016). This is due to the fact that most family members view AD’s symptoms as normal aging, and do not seek for any medical treatments (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2015). Pharmacists are a valuable member of the healthcare team in managing patients with AD They are trained to identify potential adverse drug reactions (ADR), helping the clinicians to rule out the possibility of these ADRs that may appear to be AD symptoms (Marasco et al, 2003). The role of pharmacists in the early detection of AD is increasingly emphasized as they are highly visible and accessed by the community (Criddle, 2014)
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