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Objectives: To determine the knowledge, perception, confidence and experience of pharmacist in Qatar regarding risk benefits ratio, concerns, advice, and source of information about drug use in pregnancy.
Study Design: A cross sectional, descriptive, questionnaire based study
Methods: Questionnaires were distributed to 400 licensed pharmacists in Qatar, hospital pharmacists Primary Health Centres (PHC) and polyclinics. Descriptive statistics was applied for all the collected variables. Chi-square test was also used. P value 0.05 was considered as statistical significant.
Results: Overall response rate was 51.75% (207/400), and majority (54.1%) of whom were males. The highest percentage of respondents was practicing hospital pharmacists (46.8%), followed by community pharmacist (35.3%). Most of them had a bachelors’ degree (95.7%) in pharmacy. More than 50 % of pharmacists responded to have no continuous education or received any CE points in last 12 months. 66% of these respondents reasoned work related issues (time, workload) for not attending these educational activities. Approximately 89% (strongly agree 39.6% and agree 49.8%) respondents believed they were competent enough to inform pregnant population about their medication where as 1.5 % disagreed (strongly disagree 0.5% plus 1% disagree) and around 9% being unsure. Respondents with experience of 5 years and above had better knowledge levels than others. There was a significant positive association between respondents having Continuous Education and their knowledge levels
Conclusions: With majority of respondents lacking educational activities, there is an urgent need to stress on the importance of continuous pharmacy education. Pharmacist should be aware of medications used during pregnancy and should provide appropriate drug related information to pregnant women and healthcare professionals.