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Received date : 25-06-2021 Revised date : 28-06-2021 Accepted date : 29-06-2021 Published date : 30-06-2021

Mediterr J Pharm Pharm Sci 1 (2): 25-35, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5171263

Original Research


Knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacists and pharmacy assistants toward COVID-19 outbreak in Libya: an online based cross-sectional study

Seham Shaboun and Faisa Alzunni


Abstract

The COVID-19 was announced as pandemic by WHO on March 11th, 2020. Five days later, on March 16th, 2020 prevention measures to prevent the outbreaks had been taken by authorities in Libya. The health care institutes were working during the quarantine and until now. Pharmacists as health care professionals have a critical role in COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to access the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of community pharmacists, hospital pharmacists and pharmacy assistants toward COVID-19 in Libya. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in period from November, 2020 to January, 2021. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square to measure the differences and association within socio-demographic variables. Pearson correlation was used to measure the relationship between KAP of pharmacists. A total of 205 responses were received. The majority of respondents were from the eastern part of Libya. The percent of good knowledge score was 61.5%, the percent of adequate attitude score was 59% and the percent of sufficient practice score was 56.6%. There was an association between knowledge score and respondent’s professional and educational level with P=0.008 and P=0.028, respectively. There was an association between score of attitudes and working setup, professional level and educational level with p = 0.003, 0.011 and 0.002, respectively. There was also an association between practice score with regard to gender, age educational level and work place with P=0.004, P=0.017, P=0.002 and P=0.027, respectively. There was a positive relationship between knowledge and attitude (P>0.05). In conclusion, the KAP of community pharmacists, hospital pharmacists and pharmacy assistants were low but acceptable. Therefore, KAP should be improved among pharmacists by implanting an effective health education programs in Libya.
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