Title:Pharmacists' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Upper Respiratory Infections (URI) in Iran: A Cross Sectional Study
Volume: 11
Issue: 4
Author(s): Neda Eslami, Azadeh Eshraghi, Golnaz Vaseghi, Mona Mehdizadeh, Moein Masjedi and Maryam Mehrpooya
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Antibiotic use, attitude and knowledge of pharmacists, upper respiratory infection.
Abstract: Objectives: To identify the knowledge and attitudes of community pharmacists towards upper
respiratory infections.
Setting: The pharmacists, who participated in an annual clinical pharmacy congress in Tehran, were enrolled
in this study.
Intervention: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study to assess the knowledge and attitudes of
72 community pharmacists towards upper respiratory infections (URI) using a questionnaire.
Main Outcome Measures: We investigated the knowledge and attitudes of pharmacists towards rational
antibiotics use in URI in Iran. Also we tried to detect causes of irrational antibiotic use.
Results: The response rate of our study was 72%. Of all respondents, 98.61% answered the knowledge
question” inappropriate use of antibiotics could lead to drug resistance and would increase drug allergy”
correctly. More than half (55.56%) of the community pharmacists believed that pharmacists can be affected
by patients’ expectations for antibiotics prescription. A majority of pharmacists gave a correct response
to questions about beneficial use of corticosteroid in URI (90.28%) and symptoms persistent after
10-14 days even with antibiotic therapy (86.11%). More than half of all pharmacists had misconceptions
on antibiotic use for URI in children under 2 years old. More than half of all pharmacists believed
that most cases of URI are viral infections. Also, 90.28% of all pharmacists believed that guidelines for
antibiotics prescribing may be beneficial in appropriate antibiotic use.
Conclusion: According to a high response rate for the question about efficiency of antibiotics prescription
guidelines, reliable information on the appropriate use of antibiotics should be more widely available
for pharmacists.
