Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are essential issues health professionals should consider. In order to fulfil DDI management duties, knowledge about this subject is essential. However, according to the literature, health professionals’ knowledge of DDIs is not at a sufficient level. Objectives: This study aims to examine and improve the knowledge of senior pharmacy students on DDIs. Method: A knowledge assessment tool (KAT) containing 20 DDI cases was distributed to 36 randomly selected-year pharmacy students at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University before and after completing a DDI educational intervention. Result: Senior pharmacy students performed significantly better on the KAT applied following an educational intervention. The proportion of participants correctly identifying DDIs for drug pairs following educational intervention was statistically improved in five pairs at p<0.001 and five pairs at p<0.05. Conclusion: The educational intervention increases the short-term knowledge level of the students on DDIs.

Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are preventable medication errors that can cause severe adverse effects for patients, which often involve more than one mechanism. Healthcare practitioners, especially community pharmacists, must know and manage potentially significant DDIs to provide patient safety. This paper mainly aims to determine the knowledge level of community pharmacists about DDIs and to evaluate the behavior of community pharmacists in detecting DDIs. For this aim, a face-to-face questionnaire, including a knowledge assessment test containing 20 drug pairs and ten behavior statements related to detecting DDIs, was applied to community pharmacists. Seventy-three pharmacists participated in the study. The study’s findings show that the knowledge level of community pharmacists, who are the closest health consultants, about DDIs is relatively low. In addition, responses were found to be moderate in detecting drug interactions.Although statistically significant and positive effects of vocational training on the knowledge level and behaviors of pharmacists were determined, it was revealed that education levels did not have a significant effect. In this regard, it is essential to improve community pharmacists’ DDI knowledge level through vocational training programs and encourage their interaction-detecting behavior to improve patient outcomes and patient safety.