Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAPs) of Community Pharmacists Regarding COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey in 2 Provinces of Pakistan
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Objective:
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic with no therapy, and pharmacists being a part of the health care system have a vital role in the management of COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of community pharmacists (CPs) regarding COVID-19.
Method:
An online survey was conducted among 393 CPs in 2 provinces of Pakistan during the lockdown period. A validated questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.745) was used for data collection. All statistical analyses were analyzed by using SPSS, version 21 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY).
Results:
Among 393 participants, 71.5% (n = 281) had good knowledge, 44% (n = 175) had a positive attitude, and 57.3% (n = 225) had good practices regarding COVID-19. Social media (45.29%, n = 178) were reported as the main source to seek information of COVID-19. Good knowledge, age ≥ 26 years, and a PhD degree level were the substantial determinants ( P = < 0.05) of a good attitude. Similarly, a CP with experience of > 5 years, a PhD degree, good knowledge, and a good attitude has higher odds of having good practices as compared with reference categories ( P = < 0.05).
Conclusion:
In short, a majority of the CPs had good knowledge but had a poor attitude and practice toward the management of COVID-19. Standard-structured educational and counseling programs for CPs regarding COVID-19 are needed for effective management.
Article activity feed
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.22.20108290: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was conducted in a strict locked down period and educational institutes were also closed; hence, the study protocol was approved by the ethical committee of the local teaching hospital (Reference number: 817/THQ/HR).
Consent: The online questionnaire had a pre-face that describes the nature and purpose of the study and a consent part that ensures anonymity and voluntary participation of participants. 2.6.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.22.20108290: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was conducted in a strict locked down period and educational institutes were also closed; hence, the study protocol was approved by the ethical committee of the local teaching hospital (Reference number: 817/THQ/HR).
Consent: The online questionnaire had a pre-face that describes the nature and purpose of the study and a consent part that ensures anonymity and voluntary participation of participants. 2.6.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and Limitations: This study was carried out in less explored areas where scare literature was present about the current topic. The study respondents were community pharmacists, which are educated and professionals enough to answer with honesty and responsibility. This study presents the current status of the community pharmacist knowledge, which is the first basic and important aspect of a successful response to an epidemic. This study was a computer-generated survey and is free of errors as compared to hand filled proforma. Moreover, the study describes the community pharmacist knowledge, attitude, and practices towards COVID-19 in detail, which suggests that the health ministry and related departments should focus independently. WHO published materials that were used in the development of the questionnaire and a two-step data validation technique was used, hence all these factors increase the reliability of the questionnaire. This study has a few limitations. It is a cross-sectional survey and carried out during the locked down period when educational institutes were closed, hence approval from the institutional review board was not approached. Additionally, it is an online survey, where responses primarily depend upon honesty and are partly affected by recall ability therefore chances of biasness may be there. Finally, this study is the unstandardized and inadequate assessment of attitudes and practices towards COVID, which should be established through focus gro...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
-
