Most of the medical and pharmacy students will work as health professionals after graduation and will have more opportunities to interact with patients. Therefore, they should possess adequate health literacy levels to enhance the health literacy of the patients.Objective: The present study was designed to assess functional health literacy among undergraduate Pharm.D students studying at Hamdard University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Methodology:A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A pre-validated tool S. Tofhla was self-administered to a sample of 400 Pharm.D students of Hamdard University, Islamabad, Pakistan. After data collection, data was cleaned coded and entered in SPSS version 21.0. Descriptive statistics comprising of frequency and percentages was calculated. The non-parametric tests including Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Walis (p≥0.05) were performed to find out the difference among different variables. Results:The results highlighted that female students had higher scores of functional health literacy (29.03, ±4.14). Undergraduate students living in urban settings (28.69, ±4.66) had high functional health literacy scores than students living in rural areas (26.46, ±6.48). Students having English language as medium of instruction during their schooling had better scores (28.53, ±5.11) than students having Urdu language as medium of instruction in high school. Conclusion:The results of the present study concluded that the level of functional health literacy among undergraduate pharmacy students was adequate. High level of health literacy is required to assist pharmacists to manage self-care activities, and the care of their patients, future research should be designed to explore whether improved health literacy amongst pharmacists transforms into improved self-care and better patient outcomes.
Objective: The main objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and perceptions of prescribers regarding management of hepatitis B & C in the 2 major cities of Pakistan: Islamabad (the national capital) and Rawalpindi (its twin city). Methodology:A structured questionnaire designed with the help of national standard treatment guidelines for hepatitis B & C was distributed to a random sample of 400 prescribers. The data were collected, computed and analyzed using SPSS, version 16 program and descriptive analysis was conducted. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests (p ≤ 0.05) were used to compare the knowledge scores of prescribers about standard treatment by profession, length of experience, type of health-care facility, gender, sector and city. Results:The median score for overall knowledge of prescribers regarding treatment 16 was (range 12-24). Eighty percent of the prescribers (n=320) had the opinion that lack of availability and implementation of STGs in hospitals is an important factor which affects overall cost of hepatitis B and C treatment. Forty one percent (n=167) of the prescribers identified oral Lamivudine 100mg/day as a most effective drug in treatment of hepatitis B and C whereas seventy five percent (n = 300) of the respondents agreed that 400mg ribazole PO BID is a safe dose for anti HBV and HCV treatment. Conclusion:The results of the present study concluded that the knowledge of prescribers working in public and private healthcare facilities regarding standard treatment regimen of hepatitis B & C was not adequate but they had positive perceptions towards adherence to the standard treatment guidelines linked to their availability in their healthcare facilities to promote effective management of hepatitis B & C.
Introduction: The economic benefits of the use of generic medicines cannot be denied, their use is essential to control healthcare spending especially in treatment of chronic diseases. Objective: The main objective of the study was to evaluate perceptions of prescribers, pharmacists, and nurses regarding quality, safety, efficacy and price of locally as well as multinational manufactured brands used for treatment of hypertension and type II diabetes in twin cities i.e. Islamabad (Federal Capital) and Rawalpindi (Twin City), Pakistan. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A validated semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to a total sample of 814 healthcare professionals including physicians (n=293), pharmacists (n=346) and nurses (n=173) using convenience sampling technique. After data collection, data was cleaned, coded and analyzed statistically. Results: Nearly half of the physicians (46.4%, n=36) were of the view that most of the time low cost anti-hypertensive and anti-diabetic brands are being prescribed in Pakistan. Less than half of the pharmacists (40.1%, n=139) were of the view that most of the time pharmaceutical sales representatives can serve as a source of information for quality, safety, efficacy and price of anti-hypertensive and anti-diabetic brands. Most of the physicians (42.3%, n=124) agreed that patient compliance is comparatively one of the major reason for prescribing/ procurement of the locally manufactured antihypertensive and anti-diabetic brands in routine practice. Conclusion: The results of the present study concluded that physicians and pharmacists positively supported the use of locally manufactured brands whereas majority of the nurses preferred brands manufactured by multinational companies for treatment of diabetes and hypertension.
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