Community Pharmacists’ Perception of the Relevance of Drug Package Insert as Source of Drug Information in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the opinions of community pharmacists on the usefulness and reliability of drug package inserts (DPI) as drug information source, and necessary modifications needed to improve their contents. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study using a pretested questionnaire was administered to sixty-one superintendent community pharmacists (CP) across two cities in southwestern Nigeria. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data and evaluate respondents' opinion. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the rank variables with p < 0.05 considered significant. Results: A majority of CP believed that information from DPI was precise and may be helpful in achieving therapeutic success (n = 42; 72.8 %). CP believed there is need for the modification of DPI content with respect to patient-related information (n = 52; 92.8 %) and health provider-related information (n = 52; 94.5%), non-uniformity of information on the same generic medicines (n = 31; 50.8 %), and ambiguity of content (n = 29; 47.5 %). Years of experience in practice significantly influenced respondents' perception of precision and satisfaction with DPI as source of information. Conclusions: Community pharmacists in southwestern Nigeria believed that a properly modified drug package insert could be a useful and reliable source of drug information in daily practice.

The Needs and Resources of Drug Information at Community Pharmacies in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

“…A study done in Nigeria reported that majority of pharmacists ( N = 42; 72.8%) believe that information from drug package inserts was precise and used it as a reference [19]. A similar belief and easy availability might be attributed to the high use of drug package inserts as drug information resources in the present study.…”

Provision and Need for Medicine Information in Asia and Africa: A Scoping Review of the Literature

“…Pharmacists in Japan considered that existing drug leaflets require modification to be of use to patients [ 151 ], and few used them to help their communications with patients [ 152 ]. Similarly, pharmacists in Nigeria considered that the PIs provided with medicines need changes to make them patient-friendly [ 153 ]. Many doctors surveyed in Sudan did not recommend patients read PIs, despite perceiving a need to provide information, in part because many were not written in the local language [ 154 ].…”

An Evaluation of Information Sources Regarding Drug Use and/or Poisoning Cases of Community Pharmacists in Ankara, Turkey

“…Gelayee et al reported that DI centers were "never" consulted by 70.8% of the respondents [12]. Some of the results of foreign studies were compatible with outcomes for DI centers from 14,8% to 29.2% [12,23] however higher preferences were also pronounced by Hennigen and Chan [22,25]. In Rae's study, DI centers were in the 6th rank [5].…”

“…In other studies, only Diobi's study exceeded this rate with 98.4%, while in Gelayee's and Al Tabakha's studies disagreeing with 39% and 13.9%, respectively [12,16,23]. Although those sources are always available in the pharmacy setting, the currency, appropriateness, and responsiveness are controversial since some changes might have been realized during the elapsed time from releasing to the market and the given time to reach the pharmacy [24].…”