Association of socio demographic and educational factors on knowledge and attitudes on the role of community pharmacist in healthcare system among the science students of University of Jaffna

Abstract

Abstract – Community pharmacists are expanding their services from dispensing practice to various health services to the public. Understanding their role in healthcare system is essential to get their satisfactory services. Study was conducted among university students since they are involving in community education and they have leading role in disseminating knowledge to other people-. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes towards the role of community pharmacist among the science students of University of Jaffna and influence of socio demographic and educational factors. It was an institutional based descriptive crosssectional study. A self- administered, pretested and validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. SPSS version 23 statistical software was used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the data and Chi Squared test was performed to determine the level of association. Among the total of 701 participants, 563 participants were responded with the respondent rate of 80.3 %. The mean age of participants was 24.61±0.9 years and 53.8 % (n=303) of participants were males. Of 40.3% (n=227) participants had good knowledge and 42.3% (n=238) of participants had positive attitudes. Age (p=0.004), gender (p=0.036), place of resident (p=0.012) and course of study (p=0.000) had statistically significant association with knowledge. The course of study (p=0.003) had statistically significant association with attitudes. Study revealed that more than half of the participants had poor knowledge and negative attitudes towards roles of community pharmacist. Awareness programmes should be conducted regarding role of community pharmacists on health care system.