Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards COVID-19 Among Pharmacists: A Cross-Sectional Study

Maha M AlRasheed; Amani H AlShahrani; Sara A AlMuhaini; Hadeel A AlKofide; Tariq M Alhawassi; Ahmed Aldemerdash; Omar A Alhaj; Nicola L Bragazzi; Haitham A Jahrami

doi:10.2147/RMHP.S317779

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards COVID-19 Among Pharmacists: A Cross-Sectional Study

Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2021 Jul 23:14:3079-3090. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S317779. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Medication Safety Research Chair, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences,University of Petra, Amman, Jordan.
⁴ Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Departments and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁵ Ministry of Health, Manama, Bahrain.
⁶ College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain.

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 outbreak has caused governments to put pandemic-related guidelines requiring compliance and understanding by healthcare professionals to mitigate its spread uncontrollably. We studied pharmacists' knowledge, attitude, and practice towards the COVD-19 outbreak compared with other healthcare workers during the pandemic in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: We surveyed pharmacists' socio-demographics (n=50) compared with other healthcare professionals (n=378) during lockdown starting in June 2020. We measured respondents' level of knowledge (n=10 questions, maximum score of 10), attitude (n=17 questions, maximum score of 80), and their practices (n=16 questions, maximum score of 80) towards COVID-19 infection.

Results: Median knowledge score was 8 (25th-75th percentiles: 7-9), attitude score 76 (70-80) and practice score 74 (68-78). Good knowledge predictors were >20 years working experience [OR: 2.05 (95% CI: 1.03-4.06); P=0.04] and >50% working in clinical practice [OR: 1.72 (95% CI: 1.12-2.66); P=0.01], in inverse relationship with paramedical professions [OR: 0.45 (95% CI: 0.45 (0.28-0.72)); P=0.001] and working in a university hospital [OR: 0.51 (95% CI: 0.33. 0.81); P=0.004]. Availability of pharmaceutical information and treatment options was associated with good attitude [OR: 2.19 (95% CI: 1.04-4.59); P=0.039] and acquaintance as primary information sources negatively associated with good attitude [OR: 0.34 (95% CI: 0.15-0.8); P=0.013]. Good practice predictors were female gender [OR: 3.84 (95% CI: 2.37-6.24); P<0.001], military hospital employment [OR: 2.32 (95% CI: 1.25-4.31); P=0.008], USA [OR: 3.41 (95% CI: 1.03-11.22); P=0.044] or UK [OR: 8.86 (95% CI: 1.91-41.07); P=0.005] qualifications, and information on supportive measures [OR: 2.2 (95% CI: 1.36-3.56); P=0.001].

Conclusion: Health workers displayed good knowledge about COVID-19, while profession and working experience predicted adequate knowledge, positive attitude, or practice towards disease management.

Keywords: COVID-19; attitudes; knowledge; pandemic; pharmacists; practices.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.