Consumer attitudes towards community pharmacy services in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to determine consumer attitudes towards community pharmacy and their preferences for the introduction of new services. Methods A self‐completion questionnaire was developed and 1,144 consumers in 55 community pharmacies were invited to complete it. The questionnaire covered consumers' choice of pharmacy; their perceptions of, and actual interactions with, community pharmacists; advice from pharmacists about general health and prescribed medicines; and privacy in the pharmacy. Respondents were asked for their views about five possible new services. Setting The study was based in community pharmacies in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. Key findings The response rate was 79.6%. Fifty‐nine per cent of respondents often or sometimes visited a particular pharmacy. One‐quarter of respondents perceived community pharmacists as having a good balance between health and business matters, while 56.1% thought pharmacists were more concerned with the business. The majority of respondents (69.7%) said they felt comfortable asking the pharmacist for advice. Just under half (44.8%) felt that pharmacists allowed them enough time to discuss their problem fully and listened well. In addition, 58.5% of respondents indicated that their pharmacists showed sensitivity to privacy by speaking more quietly across the counter. In 14.4% of situations pharmacists were reported to use a private area within the pharmacy when discussing personal or private matters. Most respondents (65.2%) indicated that their pharmacist was willing to discuss their health problems and tried to understand their feelings. Consumers' priorities for new services were: monitoring blood pressure; measuring weight, height and temperature; monitoring blood sugar; and monitoring cholesterol. Conclusion This study showed that most pharmacy customers feel comfortable seeking advice from their pharmacist. Although many pharmacists were reported to show sensitivity to a possible lack of privacy in the pharmacy, few respondents reported that their pharmacy had a private area for discussion. Customers' views on possible new services were generally positive, with the exception of patient medication records.

Community Pharmacy Users’ Characteristics, Reasons for Visit to the Pharmacy and Perceptions of the Role of Community Pharmacists in Harare, Zimbabwe

“…The survey instrument was developed based on a study conducted in Saudi Arabia by Bawazir [6]. The questionnaire was pilot tested using 10 randomly chosen consumers.…”

Quality Assessment of community pharmacy services provided in the United Arab Emirates: patient experience and satisfaction

“…It was found that the greatest experience and highest level of satisfaction was reported by patients when 'receiving medication with care and full attention ' (n=3.26) and 'the way the pharmacist answers patients' questions, when asking (n=3.23), whilst 'allocating time to answer patients' questions' and 'allocating time to prepare medications' were associated with the lowest level of satisfaction by participants. However, in a study of 1,144 consumers of 55 community pharmacies in Saudi Arabia, it was found that 44.8% of participants felt that pharmacists in Saudi Arabia had given them enough time to discuss their issues completely and had listened to their health-related issues (Bawazir 2004). Furthermore, in another cross-sectional descriptive study, conducted in Iran by Mehralian et al, (Mehralian et al, 2014) amongst 800 patients of 200 community pharmacies, it was reported that the highest satisfaction level was mainly related to two domains, 'observe courtesy and respect' and 'reliability of pharmacists' comments', whereas satisfaction with 'allocation of sufficient time to respond to clients' questions' was reported as high or very highly satisfactory by 37.4 % of the participants.…”

“…It is worth mentioning that only a few studies have been conducted in nearby Arab countries to evaluate patients' satisfaction with the provided pharmacy services; these studies took place in Saudi Arabia (Bawazir 2004), Qatar (El Hajj 2011, and Palestine (Khdour and Hallak 2012). In contrast, in the UAE, this area remains unexamined.…”

A Bibliometric Study of Community Pharmacy-Based Research Activity in Middle Eastern Arab Countries: 2003 - 2012

“…Authors of these publications reached a conclusion that community pharmacy is not a well-established health profession. Despite this, the general public in the Arab world reported positive perception and attitude toward community pharmacy profession and demanded more roles for community pharmacists in the health system [2][3][4][5][6][7].…”