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Abstract
Background
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a significant public health challenge. CKD patients have compromised renal function, which not only alters the pharmacokinetics of drugs but also their pharmacodynamics. Adjusting drug doses for these patients is essential to achieve the intended clinical outcomes, prevent adverse drug events, and halt further progression of the disease. Pharmacists play a pivotal role in ensuring safe and appropriate therapy for CKD patients. However, there is a noticeable absence of national dosing guidelines for CKD in Pakistan, coupled with a scarcity of studies exploring the knowledge, attitude, and perception of renal dose adjustments in the country. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of pharmacists in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Islamabad regarding renal dose adjustments.
Methodology
A cross-sectional study was conducted to gauge the knowledge, attitude, and perception of pharmacists working in various cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the capital city, Islamabad, from February to May 2023. The Renal Dosing Questionnaire-13 (RDQ-13) scale was employed for this purpose. The survey link was disseminated through emails, and the RDQ-13 scale was also completed in person by pharmacists from hospitals, clinics, community, and retail settings who interact with CKD patients. Univariate linear regression was employed, and factors with a p value < 0.25 were subjected to multivariate linear regression. For comparing knowledge, attitude, and perception scores of pharmacists, the independent t test and one-way ANOVA were utilized as appropriate. A p value < 0.05 was deemed statistically significant.
Results
Of the 384 pharmacists approached, 270 completed the RDQ-13 scale, resulting in a response rate of 70.3%. The overall knowledge score regarding renal dose adjustment was 21.24 ± 2.18 (mean ± SD). Attitude scores averaged at 10.04 ± 1.81, and perception scores at 7.19 ± 2.15. Multivariate analysis indicated a positive correlation between the pharmacists' perception scores and gender, with male pharmacists scoring higher than their female counterparts.
Conclusions
The study underscores the importance of instituting targeted training programs for pharmacists, ensuring access to dependable resources, and promoting research and results dissemination in the realm of renal pharmacotherapy to enhance public health outcomes.
Acknowledgements
None.
Author contributions
Conceptualization: RZ, IUR, YS; data curation: RZ, IUR; formal analysis: IUR, RZ; investigation: RZ, IUR, LCM, ZA, TMK; methodology: IUR, ZA, AZ, LCM, TMK; project administration: RZ, IUR; supervision: IUR; writing—original draft: RZ, IUR; writing—review and editing: YS, ZA, LCM, TMK. All authors approved the submission of the final manuscript.
Funding
None.
Availability of data and materials
The data sets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
The ethics committee of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan granted approval via letter no: EC/AWKUM/2021/27/175 (dated 20/11/2021) and all the study procedures are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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