Abstract
BackgroundCustomers’ expectations and satisfaction are critical to ensure a more effective role of the community pharmacists in promoting the safe use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions and practices of customers buying their CAM products from pharmacies and explore their satisfaction with CAM-related services offered by the community pharmacists in Lebanon.MethodsA national cross-sectional study was conducted among users of CAM (age > =18 years) who obtained their CAM from community pharmacies in Lebanon (n = 832). Within the proximity of the pharmacy, subjects were invited to complete a multi-component questionnaire. The latter consisted of four sections related to CAM: general beliefs, perception of pharmacists’ role, practices, satisfaction with services offered by the pharmacists. In addition, the questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics of participants.ResultsThe majority of participants agreed to an active role of the pharmacists’ in guiding CAM use, however over half of the participants (61.3%) did not agree that the pharmacist is more knowledgeable in this field than other healthcare providers. As for practices, one in two surveyed customers (47%) did not always give feedback to their pharmacists about the outcomes after using CAM, 20% did not often ask the pharmacists about the safe and effective mode of use of the products and 28.1% did not discuss their medical history. For services offered by the pharmacist, the majority of participants reported receiving good education about the CAM product (87.1%), its side effects (87.1%) and mode of use (93.4%), while significant proportions of participants reported that pharmacists were not asking questions about their medical history before dispensing CAM products (22%) nor were they providing information on CAM-drug interactions (30%).ConclusionsThe results of this study highlighted important gaps between the perceptions of customers and the services they received from the pharmacists about CAM use. These findings could be used by concerned stakeholders, including public health authorities and educational bodies, to develop evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting the role of pharmacists in ensuring a safe and effective CAM use Lebanon.
Highlights
Customers’ expectations and satisfaction are critical to ensure a more effective role of the community pharmacists in promoting the safe use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
A common belief among many CAM users is that CAM products are natural and safe, many do not take into consideration the issues related to the toxicity, proper dosage, the risk of contamination and the potential interaction with synthetic and other natural drugs [21, 22]
The findings of this study revealed general positive perception towards the effectiveness of CAM products and of the role of pharmacists coupled with high level of satisfaction from the services delivered by the pharmacists
Summary
Customers’ expectations and satisfaction are critical to ensure a more effective role of the community pharmacists in promoting the safe use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The use of CAM has increased steadily in both developed and developing countries, whereby CAM global market exceeded US$100 billion during year 2017, with natural products making up the most widely used category of CAM therapies [2,3,4,5]. Such an increase in the use of CAM has been attributed to many reasons including the dissatisfaction with conventional medicine, unavoidable side effects of many main stream treatments and/or the financial burden associated with their use [6]. Such a situation raises concerns about CAM safety, efficacy and impact on the users’ health and wellbeing
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