Expanding HIV/AIDS care service sites: a cross sectional survey of community pharmacists’ views in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

BackgroundCommunity pharmacists are very accessible to most patients yet; they have been underutilized in the aspect of providing HIV care and services. The World Health Organisation recently recommended expanding community pharmacists’ roles to address the increasing complexity of antiretroviral agents and co-infection drug regimen. This study therefore was designed to assess the readiness and willingness of community pharmacists in Nigeria to participate in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS and the possible inclusion of their pharmacy premises as sites for HIV care services.MethodsA descriptive cross sectional survey was carried out among 205 community pharmacists in south east, Nigeria between October, 2016 and February, 2017. Two hundred and five self-administered questionnaires were distributed to conveniently selected community pharmacists in the region. Data collected were analysed using SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics was conducted for the demographics and percentage mean scores for each domain were computed. The variables in each domain were categorised into groups and simple percentages were used to show the percentage distribution of the variables. Cross tabulation was also carried out to show the relationship between the variables and groups’ differences were explored using analysis of variance and P-values <0.05 were considered significant.ResultsAll distributed questionnaires were filled and retrieved. The overall knowledge of HIV among the surveyed pharmacists was seen to be high (70.41%). Although the percentage attitude score of the respondents towards HIV care services was on the average (57%), they were highly willing and ready to use their premise to offer HIV services with a percentage mean readiness score of 87.32%. However, their perceived skills in carrying out these services were observed to be low.ConclusionCommunity pharmacists in the south eastern part of Nigeria have high knowledge of HIV and a somewhat attitude towards HIV care services with high willingness and readiness to be involved in HIV care and services. Despite efforts to engage community pharmacists in HIV services more is needed in the aspect of making adequate policies to further empower more community pharmacists in this aspect of care.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40545-017-0122-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Assessment of Knowledge and Competencies of Community Pharmacists for Differentiated HIV Care and Services in Jos, Nigeria

“…Result of this study with regards to knowledge on HIV/AIDS pharmacotherapy differs from a similar study carried out in South-East Nigeria where community pharmacists showed high knowledge of HIV pharmacotherapy [12] but was similar to the findings of a study in India [13]. This overall average level of knowledge may be attributed to a number of factors including the nature of community pharmacies being more business orientated.…”

Assessing community pharmacists’ involvement and clients’ opinion on HIV/AIDS services in community pharmacies in Nigeria: a cross-sectional survey

“…Community pharmacist respondents' willingness to offer services is also in agreement with other studies. 6,[28][29][30][31]40 The low involvement of community pharmacist respondents in these services might be due to some of the barriers to integrating HIV/AIDS services into daily pharmacy practice presented in this study which was in line with previous studies. These include challenges of adequate training, education, and support of community pharmacists, reimbursement, existing time constraints in the community pharmacy setting, insufficient consulting space, staffing issues, uneasiness with delivering positive test results, and lack of information needed to link patients to care.…”

“…Some community pharmacists in Nigeria had been offering HIV/AIDS services as part of their extended role, but their involvement had been low, as seen in this study. This study compares with a similar study conducted in southeast Nigeria 30 where the mean score involvement in HIV services was 36.72%, and Maja et al's study 39 on HTS in community pharmacies in Lesotho where only 20% of the respondents offered HIV testing and counseling services. However, community pharmacists in this study like in previous studies agreed that HIV/AIDS services should be part of community pharmacy responsibilities and showed their willingness to participate in HIV/AIDS services in their premises.…”

“…The study revealed the readiness of pharmacists to accept the incorporation of HIV services into community pharmacy, their enthusiasm, and willingness to be included in HIV service provision. In another descriptive cross-sectional survey in southeast Nigeria, 30 the study showed that the surveyed pharmacists were seen to have high knowledge of HIV (70.41%), and they were highly willing and ready to use their premises to offer HIV services with a percentage mean readiness score of 87.32%.…”

Adherence and retention studies of HIV-positive adolescents in Southeastern Nigeria and factors responsible for their outcomes: a quantitative and qualitative study

“…Interestingly, a study conducted in southeastern Nigeria found that local health facilities such as community pharmacies are willing to participate in HIV care. (Ajagu, Anetoh, & Nduka, 2017) The practice of DOT has been effectively used in the past to increase medication compliance in Tuberculosis (TB) management (Karumbi and Garner, 2015). A parent who is HIV positive knows the importance of adherence to ART and therefore ensures improved well-being of JCBR Vol 2 Is 6 Nov-Dec 2022 the ALHIV in his care by ensuring regular ART use by the ALHIV through direct observation of the drug consumption and possibly taking their ART at the same time with the ALHIV, as was reported by a caregiver in the IDI.…”