Healthcare professionals’ understanding and perception of drug-related issues linked to off-label pharmacological medications used for COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Background

To evaluate the opinions of healthcare workers regarding drug therapy problems linked to anti-infective medicines used for the treatment of COVID-19 infection in Pakistan.

Research methodology

This cross-sectional study was conducted from January to October 2022 using a self-administered questionnaire developed by the authors, having three sections: demographics, knowledge, and perception. The study was validated by research experts and pilot-tested on 30 subjects. The study included medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists from Punjab’s government and private medical institutes.

Results

In this study, 382 of 400 participants replied. The mean knowledge score was 9.52 (SD 2.97), showing that participants had adequate knowledge of COVID-19 pharmacological interventions. The knowledge scores were significantly higher of those who treated COVID-19 patients and were from Lahore. Many doctors considered that elderly patients and those with blood disorders were at greater risk of experiencing drug-related problems. Most pharmacists support electronic prescription systems. Many doctors thought the lack of unified treatment guidelines, multiple prescribers, and self-medication were key obstacles in managing COVID-19 patients.

Conclusion

Most respondents had adequate knowledge. Older patients with comorbidities are at risk of adverse effects. Self-medication, polypharmacy, and multiple prescriptions can lead to misdiagnosis and complications. Electric prescriptions, team effort, and training programs can decrease these issues.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 infection
• healthcare professional’s opinion
• hospital
• anti-infective
• drug therapy problems
• anti-viral
• antibiotics

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Ethics statement

Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional Review Board of Pakistan kidney and liver institute and research Centre letter no PKLI-IRB/AP/91 and the administrations of the participating institutes from where data was acquired.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Author contribution statement

Elements of this work including the conception of ideas, literature search, study designs, clinical data collections, statistical data analysis, data interpretation, manuscript drafting, and paper writing were done by Muhammad Zeeshan Munir. Tahir Mehmood Khan and Amer Hayat Khan Supervised and performed project administration, critical revisions of the paper, final editing, agreed to submit the manuscript to this journal, gave the final approval for the submitted version, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This paper received no funding.