Knowledge, attitude and perception of community pharmacist towards patients' safety with OTC medications in Melaka and Negeri Sembilan / Sarah Nazurah Sapiyan

The recent increase in numbers of OTC drugs in Malaysia has great impact on the trend of self-medication in Malaysia. Consumers that usually go to the community pharmacies tend to have high possibility of self medicating. Pharmacists play a vital role in providing information to the consumers so that they will use the medication safely. Therefore, this study is conducted to explore the current knowledge, attitude and perception of community pharmacist towards patients' safety with OTC medications. A cross sectional survey was conducted at Melak:a and Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The questionnaire consisted of four sections, which are demographic, knowledge, attitude and perception of community pharmacists towards patients' safety with OTC medications. 100 respondents successfully answered the questions. Almost all of the respondents have higher level of knowledge towards OTC medications consumption among the consumers with a mean value of knowledge score of 92.88%. They also have good attitudes when they agree that patients need to be reminded to read the label again before taking OTC medicines. On the other hand, the respondents did not agree to dispense the medicines based on price. Based on perception, majority of the respondents agree that OTC medicines do not cause any harmful to the patients if they use in proper way. Moreover, majority of them did not agree when it states that information about OTC medicines from only one source is good enough. Community pharmacists must be equipped with sufficient knowledge and information in order to advice or counsel the patients. Therefore, various information resources are very crucial. In conclusion, knowledge, attitude and perception (KAP) of community pharmacists play an important role towards educating patients on safety issues related to OTC medications.