Assessment of the Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice of Senior Pharmacy Practice Trainees of Tehran Universities Regarding Common Upper Respiratory Tract Disorders

introduction: Patients considered community pharmacies as the most accessible primary care setting to seek attention, especially common upper respiratory disorders. Therefore, pharmacist should have enough and accurate knowledge to advice, manage and triage patients appropriately and to respond their health needs professionally1.This study designed to evaluate awareness, knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of senior pharmacy practice trainees of Tehran universities regarding common upper respiratory tract disorders, as the most prevalent disorders asking primary care in community pharmacies. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done between April 2018 and April 2019 in Tehran universities. Cochran equation used to estimate an accurate sample size of participants to have a proper extension based on near 750 pharmacy practice trainees in Tehran universities.The calculated sample size was 247. To evaluate the awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice of participants a valid and reliable instrument was developed. SPSS software version 23 and appropriate statistical tests were utilized. Results and conclusions: : Overall 257 Senior pharmacy practice trainees including 82 males (32%) and 175 females (68%). Almost 92.1% of participants were in age between 20 and 25 years old. The self-administered score of awareness was 3.47 based on a 5-point Likert scale. The score for knowledge and practice were 10.70 ± 3.88 (out of 20) and 43.67 ± 13.51 (out of 100), respectively. There was a significant difference between the amount of knowledge in the fields of diagnosis and drug information between different universities in Tehran respectively (P=0.017 , P=0.002). Shahid Beheshti students have more positive attitude toward the need to take history from patients in compare with all of the students (P=0.001). Discussion: Our results show that the levels of self-administered awareness were moderate, and this conception is not correlated with their exact knowledge score. The knowledge and practice scores were moderate. Shahid Beheshti students have more positive attitude toward the need to take history from patients in compare with all of the students that shows more attention is giving to need to take history at Shahid Beheshti university.

Keywords:

Universities , Cross-Sectional Studies , Sample Size , Disease Management , Awareness