Knowledge and preparedness of community pharmacists in the fight against COVID-19 in Zambia

  1. Jimmy Mapenzi Hangoma
  2. Steward Mudenda
  3. Mpande Mukumbwa Mwenechanya
  4. Aubrey Chichoni Kalungia

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has severely strained healthcare systems globally. Community pharmacists remain vital health professionals with unique roles in responding to symptoms, supplying medicines and providing health promotion in the communities where they serve. The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge and preparedness of community pharmacists in the fight against COVID-19 in Zambia.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> This descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 300 registered community pharmacists in Zambia from April to May 2020. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data using the statistical package for social sciences version 23. All statistical tests were set at 95% confidence level (p&lt;0.05).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> From a total of 393 community pharmacists, 300 participated in the study indicating a response rate of 76.3%. 97% of the pharmacists knew the common signs and symptoms of COVID-19, 83% knew the national guidelines for screening criteria and 93% were aware that a suspected case of COVID-19 presenting to the community pharmacy needed to be alerted to the national response team. Only 59% knew they needed to self-isolate and self-report should they experience symptoms of COVID-19. 85% stated that personal protective equipment was inadequate in the pharmacies they operated from. 60% of the pharmacists were prepared to participate in the frontline fight against COVID-19.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Community pharmacists in Zambia are knowledgeable about COVID-19 signs and symptoms including the technical guidelines on the screening and detection of suspected cases. Community pharmacists are prepared to participate in the frontline fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia.</p>

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.18203/issn.2454-2156.intjscirep20212836
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.01.20185694: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Ethical Considerations: Ethical approval was granted by the University of Zambia Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee (UNZAHSREC) with an Ethics Approval of Protocol ID Number 20203101007.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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:
    Limitations of the study: This was an online-based cross-sectional survey that utilised a structured questionnaire. The structured questionnaire may lead to a form of bias and hence affect the study findings. This study cannot be generalized among hospital pharmacists as it only focussed on community pharmacists. Unanswered questions and further research: We ask ourselves certain questions: What are the psychological impacts of COVID-19 among community pharmacists? Will the Ministry of Health engage community pharmacists as frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19? Therefore, these questions remain unanswered and will thus form the basis of future research with regards to pharmacists and COVID-19.

    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.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.01.20185694v1 on medRxiv