Abstract
Background Health promotion is now becoming an integral part of community pharmacy practice worldwide. Objectives This study was intended to determine the level of involvement of community pharmacists in providing health promotion service and to identify the barriers to the practice. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 48 community pharmacists working in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia. Data on sociodemographic factors, practice, and barriers to health promotion service were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results The majority of respondents were B.Pharm holders (n = 27, 56.3%). Almost all respondents (n = 45, 95.8%) were willing and claimed to be well involved in health promotion services. The top 5 services were related to drug misuse, asthma, diabetes, family planning, and cardiovascular diseases. However, involvement in some types of health promotion services significantly differed based on sex, educational level, and pharmacy ownership of respondents. The main barrier reported was lack of training. Conclusion The community pharmacists in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia, are engaged in health promotion activities. However lack of training has limited their level of involvement and practice differences were noted based on sex, educational level, and pharmacy ownership status of the respondents.
Highlights
Health promotion is becoming an integral part of community pharmacy practice worldwide
Female Male Age 23–28 years 29–51 years Educational level Diploma B.Pharm M.S Work experience in community pharmacy mean = 5.4, median = 4.5, range = 15 1–4 years 5–16 years Pharmacy ownership Owner Employee Additional work experience Yes No Willing to provide health promotion service Yes No Think professional curricular training is adequate for offering health promotion service Yes No n (%)
(31.3%) respondents opined that the curricular training they received was not sufficient to be involved in health promotion services, Table 1
Summary
Health promotion is becoming an integral part of community pharmacy practice worldwide. This study was intended to determine the level of involvement of community pharmacists in providing health promotion service and to identify the barriers to the practice. Involvement in some types of health promotion services significantly differed based on sex, educational level, and pharmacy ownership of respondents. Lack of training has limited their level of involvement and practice differences were noted based on sex, educational level, and pharmacy ownership status of the respondents. Pharmacists can play an important role in promoting the health of individuals They are the third largest regulated healthcare professional group in the world, and community pharmacy is the most common discipline represented [3]. Being one of the most accessible healthcare practitioners, the community pharmacist can play a major role in the provision of health promotion activities to the society. Community pharmacy as a setting for public health activities has several advantages such as extended opening hours and absence of appointments needed for advice [5]
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