Nation-Wide Survey Assessing the Knowledge and Attitudes of Romanian Pharmacists Concerning Pharmacogenetics

Cristina Pop; Anamaria Cristina; Irina Iaru; Stefan L Popa; Cristina Mogoșan

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.952562

Nation-Wide Survey Assessing the Knowledge and Attitudes of Romanian Pharmacists Concerning Pharmacogenetics

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Jul 1:13:952562. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.952562. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Cristina Pop¹, Anamaria Cristina¹, Irina Iaru¹, Stefan L Popa², Cristina Mogoșan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
² 2nd Medical Department, Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Abstract

Background: Pharmacogenetics (PGx) is an important component of personalized medicine that has the potential to improve medicines' effectiveness and safety. However, despite progress in technology and availability, PGx testing application into patient-care in Eastern Europe countries, has been slow. Objectives: Our aim was to describe knowledge and attitudes of Romanian pharmacists concerning PGx, and identify potential factors limiting PGx implementation. Method: An anonymous, web-based questionnaire was distributed to Romanian pharmacists registered in the National Pharmacists' Association (NPA) via an official e-mail sent by NPA representatives. Results: A total of 1,058 pharmacists completed the questionnaires, resulting in a response rate of 7.6%. Pharmacists were predominantly female (90.1%), younger than 49 years (87.5%) and mostly worked in community pharmacies (80.2%). Most pharmacists (64.8%) had a knowledge score between 30 and 49 points out of 60, and (75.4%) had attitude scores between 9 and 7 out of 10. Attitude and knowledge scores positively correlated. Conclusion: Despite performing fairly well on general questions regarding PGx, Romanian pharmacists may lack in-depth knowledge, which can affect their readiness to discuss PGx information with patients or other healthcare professionals. High pricing was considered an important impediment in PGx implementation.

Keywords: drug therapy optimization; drugs’ benefit-risk assessment; genetic variability evaluation; pharmacogenetics; pharmacogenomics; pharmacy education.