Background: Demand for diabetes care and prevention has increased due to Saudi Arabia's high prevalence of diabetes mellitus and its insufficient treatment. This raised awareness of the significance of community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia, who may significantly improve diabetes treatment by setting up pharmacist-led diabetic clinics. Thus, to assess community pharmacists' readiness to lead diabetes clinics in Saudi Arabia, this study evaluated the usefulness of an educational session on diabetes care.
Method: The preparation of community pharmacists for diabetes treatment and management was assessed using a validated diabetes-specific questionnaire. An engaging and thorough diabetes education class was presented by two licensed diabetes educators. One-way ANOVA, chi-square, and the Mann-Whitney U-test were used to statistically assess the pre- and post-knowledge and attitude scores of community pharmacists.
Results: Following a learning session, the community pharmacists had a significant increase in understanding oral hypoglycemic medicines, monitoring the disease's course, and dosing of insulin for diabetics (p = 0.01). Additionally, the community pharmacist's perspective and attitude score on managing diabetes increased from 49.74 to 52.74 (p = 0.01).
Conclusion: The study's findings demonstrated a marked improvement in community pharmacist's knowledge of and attitude toward running pharmacist-led diabetic clinics following a session on diabetes education in collaboration with the Pharmacy College. The study's findings also emphasized the significance of developing a structured programme for diabetes education in Saudi Arabia to address the demands of community pharmacists in terms of professional development.
Keywords: Attitude to health; Community pharmacist; Diabetes care; Diabetes mellitus; Education; Public health.
© 2023. The Author(s).