Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Primary Health Care Providers towards Deprescribing in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Deprescribing is a new approach in which healthcare providers try to improve a patient's prescription regimen by removing unnecessary drugs. The study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of primary health care providers towards deprescribing in Ambo university referral hospital (AURH) and AGH (Ambo general hospital) and identify the perceived barriers that prevent primary health care workers not to practicing deprescribing.Method: A facility-based cross sectional study was done using a structured questionnaire on primary health care professionals from July to September 2021. The data was cleaned, coded, and entered into the SPSS version 20 statistical software for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the dependent and independent variables.Result: 223 primary health care providers in Ambo, West Shewa zone of Oromia, took part in the study. Among the participants, 155(69.5%) heard about deprescribing; around half 109 (48.9%) of the respondents perceived that deprescribing does well than harm to patients. 147 (65.9%) of the respondents reported that they had consciously practiced deprescribing, and 76 (34.1%) had never consciously practiced yet. Regarding barriers, 85(38.1%) of the respondents said that lack of organizational support followed by lack of clear risk benefits information, lack of time and access make them not to practice. Conclusion: The study showed that the majority of the respondents heard about deprescribing and believed that it is important when drugs’ potential harms out weight their benefits. The majority of the participants said that the involvement of pharmacists in medication review makes them to practice deprescribing.