DISPENSING PATTERN AND KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE & PRACTICE REGARDING OVER THE COUNTER MEDICATIONS AMONGST PHARMACISTS IN MANDYA CITY
Kruthika C., Ramya M., Dr. A. Vikneswari*, Preseena Mary and Nihal
ABSTRACT
Background: Over-the-counter (OTC) drug is a medicine that is available without a prescription, and hence also referred to as a “non-prescription drug”. The class of OTC drugs includes vitamins, tonics, iron preparations, analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), cough mixtures, skin care products, sore throat products, antipyretics, and laxatives. Objectives: The main objective of our study is to assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of OTC drugs among dispensers working in retail pharmacies and to determine the drug dispensing pattern of pharmacies of OTC medications. Methodology: It is a community-based cross-sectional study conducted in community pharmacies in Mandya city. The Data were collected from a questionnaire form which is distributed to the registered community pharmacists in pharmacies of Mandya city. Results: A total of 75 Pharmacists working in different pharmacies were willing to participate in this study voluntarily, and gave written informed consent forms. The majority of the pharmacists interviewed were of age group 26-44 years, 42(56%) participants were male which belonged to the majority category. It was observed that 42(56%) pharmacists had 5 or less than 5 years of experience. The mean score of dispensers was 6.8(68%), 3.74(37.4%), and 4.92(49.2%) for knowledge assessment, attitude-based assessment, and practice-based assessment respectively. It was observed that among the dispensed drugs medicines for GIT 75(100%), were more commonly dispensed. Conclusion: This study showed that many dispensers were aware of OTC drugs. They were not aware to which schedule OTC drugs have been included. There was enthusiasm to periodically update OTC drugs but it was observed that most of the pharmacists assumed there is major changes in therapeutic effect between generic drugs and branded drugs.
Keywords: OTC drugs, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacist.
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