Community pharmacists' assessment of the factors that influence the recommendation of complementary medicines in Lagos State, Nigeria: a pilot study
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Abstract
Background: Individuals are now more proactive about their healthcare and complementary medicines (CMs) are usually utilized for self-care. They are widely sold in community pharmacies in Nigeria.
Objectives: This study evaluated the factors that influence the recommendation of complementary medicines by community pharmacists.
Methods: A cross-sectional and descriptive survey was carried out in three community pharmacy zones in Lagos State. Data were analyzed with the IBM Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (IBM Corp, Version 20.0, Armonk, NY, USA) with statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.05.
Results: Most of the respondents were below 30 years of age (45.5%), male (61.8%), recent graduates (76.4%), had only an undergraduate degree (61.8%) with less than 10 years of community pharmacy experience (81.8%). Only 43.6% had overall adequate knowledge of CMs. Many (98.2%) agreed that knowledge about CMs is important to them as practicing pharmacists. About 91% reported that they will not recommend a CM that has no evidence of safety. Only 40% of the respondents agreed that their undergraduate pharmacy training equipped them to be providers of information on CMs. Those who stocked CMs in their community pharmacies had better knowledge scores than those who did not (P = 0.033).
Conclusion: Community pharmacists in some zones in Lagos State, Nigeria had poor knowledge about complementary medicines. This served as a major barrier to their recommendation of these medicines. Community pharmacists should engage in continuing education programmes and the undergraduate curriculum should be reviewed to produce better equipped professionals in this regard.
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