Egyptian community pharmacists’ attitudes and practices towards antibiotic dispensing and antibiotic resistance; a cross-sectional survey in Greater Cairo

Abstract

Background: Antibiotic resistance is an increasing worldwide crisis. In Egypt, it is prohibited by law to dispense antibiotics with no prescription; however, there are no active and enforced governmental policies and laws to regulate such a process. This has led to increased antibiotic dispensing and consumption.

Aims: To assess some basic knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic resistance and the practice of antibiotic dispensing among Egyptian community pharmacists in Greater Cairo.

Methodology: An observational cross-sectional self-administrated survey targeting licensed community pharmacists in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The survey was validated by both face and content validation.

Results: Exactly 531 pharmacists were invited to join the survey, and only 461 pharmacists agreed to participate. Approximately half of the participants (51.2%) were considered to have good basic knowledge regarding antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. The majority (74%) of the respondents strongly agreed that antibiotics are over-prescribed in Egypt, and almost all of them (90%) were hoping the Ministry of Health could publish guidelines for antibiotic dispensing in Egypt. Male pharmacists were more likely to engage and communicate with either patient or prescriber during the antibiotic dispensing process compared to females.

Conclusion: The Egyptian Ministry of Health should regulate and monitor the process of dispensing antibiotics without a prescription with law enforcements. Moreover, community pharmacists should have more awareness on the consequences of the problem of antibiotic dispensing without a prescription, regardless of the business profit behind it.

Keywords:

• Antibiotic resistance
• Community pharmacists
• KAP survey
• Antibiotic misuse
• Antibiotics dispensing

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This manuscript received no funding.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors and CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Abdelhamed Ibrahem, former Dean and Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the faculty of Pharmacy Helwan University, for his support of this work. In addition, the authors would like to thank Asmaa Azez, a third-year student at the faculty of Pharmacy, Helwan University, for her contribution in collecting some of the data from pharmacists.