IntroductionAlthough all implemented and ongoing initiatives, drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are still a global problem. Most published studies about DDIs in Saudi Arabia are carried out in hospital settings. In addition, assessing the knowledge of drug interactions in Saudi Arabia is limited. The aim of our study is to evaluate the knowledge of potential common drug-drug interactions among community pharmacists particularly in Saudi Arabia.MethodologyA crosses-sectional study utilizing a self- administered questionnaire was conducted among community pharmacy in Riyadh city Saudi Arabia. DDIs' knowledge was assessed by 26 drug pairs. Community pharmacists were asked to select the DDIs as “contraindication”, “may be used together with monitoring”, “no interaction” and “not sure”.ResultsA total of 283 of community pharmacists completed the survey with response rate of 80.9%. Among the 26 drug pairs only 5 of them were identified correctly by most of the participants. To add more 3 out of the 5 pairs had a cutoff of less than 10% between the correct and wrong answer, meaning there still a majority that couldn't identify the correct answer. All the 26 pairs had a statistically significant difference between the correct and incorrect answer.ConclusionThe results of this study showed that knowledge of community pharmacists about DDIs was inadequate. Community pharmacist should have specific courses in drug interactions to cover the most possible interactions that can be seen in this setting.

Pharmacists are considered among the most accessible healthcare workers in fundamental positions to implement new clinical initiatives, such as pharmacogenomics services. The scope of pharmacogenomics in improving health outcomes and the quality of health care is well-known. Implementation of such initiatives requires adequate knowledge, perception, and positive attitudes among pharmacists. A study was conducted on pharmacy students at King Saud University in Riyadh to analyze their attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions concerning pharmacogenomics to explore the feasibility of establishing full-time pharmacogenomics instruction and services. A cross-sectional study was carried out in one of the significant pharmacy schools of Saudi Arabia, using a simple questionnaire-based survey in pharmacy students pursuing Bpharm and PharmD courses to obtain preliminary information about pharmacogenomics among the surveyed population. The study’s secondary objective was to determine the perceived belief about pharmacogenomics implementation in clinical practice. Out of the total of 552 participants, 41.8% correctly defined pharmacogenomics and 81.3% understood that genetic change could lead to adverse reactions. More than half of the participants agreed that the FDA recommends pharmacogenomics testing for certain drugs. The knowledge about a year of use of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice was found to be very low; only 15.2% could correctly answer. Only 60% of students agreed on pharmacogenomics testing for selecting the therapy with the most negligible adverse effects. Due to the limited knowledge about and understanding of pharmacogenomics, there is a lack of interest among pharmacy students in implementing pharmacogenomics testing in clinical practice. Our study highlights the need for improving pharmacy students’ knowledge about pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics so that the implementation of pharmacogenomics testing in clinical practice will become easier. There is a need to introduce an up-to-date curriculum for pharmacy courses other pharmacogenomics-based health education programs in Saudi Arabia.

Background and Objectives: Many different forms of headaches can change or impact daily activity and quality of life, which increases the financial burden on society over time. Undergraduates who get headaches may be absent from attending lectures, perform less well on their daily tasks and academic achievement, as well as struggle to build and maintain relationships with peers and mentors. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the headache-related characteristics and managing approaches among Saudi pharmacy and nursing students at a Saudi university, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A survey questionnaire was administered in this cross-sectional study to participants at a Saudi university, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Participants included males. The sample size was calculated with Raosoft® software. Data analysis was executed using IBM Statistic SPSS, and the level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: A total of 236 participants completed the questionnaires. The majority, i.e., 218 (92.4%) of them, were male; in addition, 124 (52.5%) were aged between 26 and 30, 124 (52.5%) were pharmacy students, 112 (47.5%) were nursing students, and 134 (56.8%) were smokers. When asked about ever having at least one episode of headache during the week, 66.1% (n = 156) agreed that they had one episode of headache, although 57 (24.2%) of the students had a headache for five days during a week. With regard to the impact of headaches on everyday activities, only 34.7% of the students said that headache disrupted their regular activities. Almost 41% of the students agreed that headache impacted their academic performance. Nearly 34% of students (n = 79) who had headaches considered napping, while 33% (n = 64) took painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicines, and 25% (n = 59) considered taking caffeine. In this study, the participants’ ages and headache severity were strongly associated (p = 0.0001). More pharmacy students (66.1%) reported having severe headaches than nursing students (14.3%) (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: The current findings revealed that most of the undergraduates suffered from headaches, and the intensity of the pain was moderate; furthermore, one in four undergraduates reported that headaches impacted their academic performance. Caffeine and simple analgesics and anti-inflammatories were used for headache relief.

Introduction: When it comes to non-communicable diseases like diabetes, inadequate knowledge, attitude, and practice are often linked to poor health outcomes. This study aims to assess the patients’ knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of diabetes in the outpatient department of a university teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, diabetes type 2 patients attending outpatient departments at a university teaching hospital, Riyadh, were assessed regarding their knowledge, attitude, and practice toward diabetes using a validated KAP scale. Descriptive and inferential analysis was done to determine the factors associated with KAP score using SPSS version 26.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, U.S.). Results: Males made up 69.7% of the sample (n = 165), while 56.9% were between the ages of 41 and 75. The level of knowledge and practice had “good” in 37.6%, and 47.9%, respectively, but level of attitude had “positive” in 30.9% of patients. The association between knowledge tier and gender (p0.014) and insurance status (p0.008), respectively, was shown to be significant. However, the attitude tier was only significantly associated with gender ( P = .003). The practice tier also showed a significant age association ( P = .049). As regards, the mean scores for diabetes-related knowledge were higher only among insured participants ( P = .03) than for other participants’ sociodemographic factors. Meanwhile, the mean attitude scores were also higher among males ( P = .006) than for other sociodemographic characteristics. A comparison of the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics found no statistically significant variations in practice scores. Conclusion: Unfortunately, this study found that outpatient diabetes patients had insufficient knowledge, practice, and a negative attitude toward diabetes type 2. This imposes a great burden on healthcare workers and hence the healthcare system to improve patient scores via diabetes education programs or pharmacist-led patient counseling initiatives.

Objective To assess the knowledge of Alzheimer disease among healthcare students of King Saud University, Riyadh Saudi Arabia. Methods This cross-sectional survey was conducted via an online questionnaire using google form as the main platform to collect the data. We included Pharmacy, medical and dental students, who are studying at king Saud University, Riyadh Saudi Arabia during February to March 2019. Results A total of 671 healthcare students responded to the study, and a total of 529 participants completely filled the survey with a response rate 79%. Majority (70.1%) of the student studied about Alzheimer disease in their college life, only 16.6% were not and 13.2% of them not remember. Most of the respondents 373 (70%) answered correctly and said that Alzheimer disease is related to mental disorders, although majority of 73.5% knew that Alzheimer disease is a Neurodegenerative disease. There was significant difference in knowledge score of medical and dental students (p = 0.001), Pharmacy and dental students (p = 0.003) respectively. Conclusion Saudi healthcare students have variation in knowledge about Alzheimer disease. To increase levels of knowledge, it is necessary to provide adequate education Programme and training is needed in healthcare colleges. We suggest further studies with large sample sizes to identify the effectiveness of Alzheimer disease education programs healthcare schools are warranted.