Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, perception and barriers towards pharmacovigilance activities among community pharmacists and final year pharmacy students in Malaysia

Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In order to overcome this problem, many countries around the world have established national pharmacovigilance systems. Most of the phannacovigilance system nowadays depends largely on ADR Spontaneous Reporting System (SRS) by healthcare professional such as physicians and pharmacists. Within this context, Malaysia established its pharmacovigilance system in 1987. The Malaysian Adverse Drug Reaction Advisory Committee (MADRAC) was established under the umbrella of Drug Control Authority (DCA) for documenting SRS reports received from healthcare professionals. As with most of the spontaneous ADRs reporting system worldwide, the Malaysian SRS has also been affected by underreporting of ADRs especially by the community pharmacists. Data from MADRAC shows that the ADRs reporting rate by community pharmacists is low compared to their counterparts in the other countries. Furthermore, there are no comprehensive studies conducted to explore the reasons behind under reporting of ADRs among community pharmacists in Malaysia. This thesis aims to explore the knowledge, attitude and perception held by community pharmacists regarding ADR reporting

Impact of educational intervention for improving Malaysian parents’ knowledge towards their children immunization

Background: Parents are the primary health decision-maker for their children. This fact makes parents’ knowledge regarding immunization in general has great impact on their children immunization status. Aims: To assess the knowledge of parents in Malaysia towards their children immunization and to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational seminar for improving parents’ knowledge towards their children immunization. Methods: A cross-sectional study using pre- and post- intervention design was conducted with a sample of 73parents. Changes in knowledge scores before and after the educational seminar were measured. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used whenever appropriate. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the respondents’ demographic information. Wilcoxon Signed ranks test and The McNemar χ2 test were applied to compare the differences in knowledge before and after the seminar whenever appropriate. Results: Seventy three parents agreed to participate in this educational seminar, majority of them were mothers (n= 64; 87.7%). A comparison of parents’ knowledge before and immediately after the implementation of the educational seminar showed significant differences. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the Knowledge scores of immunization significantly increased compared to the baseline following the intervention 12.60±2.69 to 16.03±1.87 (p<0.001), the possible score in knowledge domain ranged from zero to 20. Conclusion: Parents’ knowledge towards immunization improved significantly after the educational intervention. Therefore, introducing educational programs for parents to improve their knowledge about immunization is needed

Statin therapy prescribing for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a review of current evidence and challenges

Use of statin therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been recommended by most clinical guidelines. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among T2DM patients. It has been proved that statins are effective for primary or secondary CVD prophylaxis. Reports have highlighted the underutilization of statins in clinical practice and the suboptimal adherence to guideline recommendations. This review article points to summarize the current evidence confirming the role of statins in T2DM patients and to provide an overview of factors that may affect statins’ prescribing patterns and compliance in clinical practice. Initiatives to enhance statin therapy prescribing should recognize the comprehensive nature of the prescribing process. Attempts to assure proper statin prescribing and utilization can help in achieving better clinical outcomes of statin therapy

Psychometric properties of knowledge, attitude, and practice on pharmacogenovigilance in drug safety questionnaire in medicine and pharmacy students: based on Exploratory Factor Analysis

Integration of Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacovigilance in the curricula of future healthcare professionals isessential towards individualized medicine and drug safety. Researchers are lacking in Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding pharmacogenovigilance in drug safety among Malaysian future health professionals. Thisstudy is to develop and validate a reliable questionnaire for evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of future Doctors and Pharmacists concerning Pharmacogenovigilance in drug safety. A 49-item self-administeredquestionnaire was developed from the literature. The content was validated by a panel of relevant expertsfollowed by face validity. A pilot study on 100 respondents was conducted for reliability, followed by a crosssectional study involving 247 participants in factor analysis. The content validity index of the wholequest ionnaire was 0.8%. The overall Cronbach‟s Alpha was 0.8, with P<0.001. 67.4% of the total variance wasexplained by 13 factors, and we can conclude that the questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument

Using community website as an informal learning environment among Malaysian pharmacy students

Objective: This study was conducted to analyse students’ insight on informal learning by means of social networks and community websites. Methods: Survey forms were distributed to all 360 students of Kulliyyah of Pharmacy of IIUM. Data analysis has been done using IBM SPSS software 20, and descriptive statistics were used to study the demographic characteristics of the students in relation to their use of social networking sites (SNSs). Results: 240 students were answered. The results revealed that the highest rating with mean (SD) = 4.53 (0.63) were related to accessing course notes and other teaching materials. Most students agreed that SNSs were helpful to their courses, mean (SD) = 4.18 (0.73). Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate that pharmacy students at IIUM use SNSs and other community websites as tools for academic purposes

Does an educational intervention improve parents’ knowledge about immunization? Experience from Malaysia

Background: Parents’ knowledge about immunization is an important predictor factor for their children’s immunization status. The aims of this study were to assess parents’ knowledge and to evaluate the effect of a short educational intervention on improving parents’ knowledge of childhood immunization. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a pre- and post-test intervention survey of a single group was conducted among Malaysian parents. Changes in total knowledge score before and after the intervention were measured using a validated questionnaire. The intervention consisted of an animated movie and lecture using simple understandable language. Wilcoxon signed ranks test and the McNemar x2 test were applied to compare the differences in knowledge before and after the intervention. Results: Seventy-three parents were enrolled in this study; the majority were mothers (n = 64, 87.7%). Parents’ knowledge about childhood immunization increased significantly after the intervention compared to the baseline results (p < 0.001). There were significant differences between parents’ knowledge and their educational level and monthly income (p < 0.001 and p = 0.005), respectively. Conclusions: A short educational intervention designed for parents had a positive effect on their knowledge about immunization. Educational interventions targeting parents with low levels of education and income are needed. Further studies investigating the actual effectiveness of such interventions on immunization rates and statuses are required. Keywords: Immunization, Parents, Educational intervention, Knowledge, Malaysi

Osteoporosis knowledge among future healthcare practitioners: Findings from a Malaysian public university

Background and Objectives: Students in relevant health‑care academic programs are the future professionals who should play an active role in increasing community awareness regarding chronic diseases such as osteoporosis. This research aimed to evaluate the knowledge of osteoporosis, one of the growing health‑care burdens in Malaysia, among students belong to three different health occupations programs in a Malaysian University. Methods: A cross‑sectional study design was conducted to assess the level of knowledge on osteoporosis and to explore the potential association between the study program and osteoporosis‑related knowledge among medicine, pharmacy, and allied health sciences students in a Malaysian University. A total of 348 students were approached. The data were collected using validated revised Osteoporosis Knowledge Test questionnaire. Results: The results showed variability in knowledge score between students belonging to different study programs. allied health sciences students have the highest overall total score (median = 20) and nutrition score (median = 16), but for exercise score, both students in allied health sciences and medicine programs shared a similar median score (median = 11.5). More than half of the respondents showed adequate knowledge on osteoporosis. The students from allied health sciences exhibited more knowledge on osteoporosis compared to students in other study programs. Among the Kulliyyah of Pharmacy respondents, the majority did not manage to answer correctly on the whole scale. This was evident by total percentage of 69.91% of the respondents scored below than median score. Conclusion: There is a considerable gap of knowledge regarding osteoporosis among students in various health occupations academic programs. Pharmacy students particularly need focused learning related to exercise and nutrition in preventing osteoporosis during their academic program

Prevalence of awareness, attitude, and practice towards tobacco use among general public in Kuantan

Introduction: Several studies had been conducted to assess the awareness, attitude, and practice of a specific population towards cigarette smoking. However, other tobacco products are mostly neglected. In Malaysia, many tobacco products such as cigarettes, hand-rolled tobacco, shisha, cigar, pipe, and chewy tobacco are easily accessible. Yet, there are no established studies of tobacco use specifically among the general public in Kuantan. Objective: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use among the Kuantan general public and to assess the awareness, attitude and practice towards tobacco use. Method: This is a cross-sectional study. A pre-tested, structured, self-administered questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample (N = 202) in Kuantan from October to December 2018. The questionnaire was validated by experts and a pilot study was conducted to establish its reliability. Data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive as well as inferential analysis. Results: The prevalence among the respondents was 43.6% (n = 88), in which 98.2% were males. Most of the respondents reported high awareness (91.1%) about tobacco use with the highest scores being achieved by males and those between 38 and 47 years old (96.0%). The majority of respondents demonstrated a positive attitude (97.02%) towards tobacco use, particularly among females and those between 38 and 47 years old (100%). In terms of practice, almost 50.5% reported poor practice, especially females and those who are between 18 and 27 years old. Conclusion: The prevalence of tobacco use among the general public of Kuantan is considered high. Most of the people in Kuantan have good awareness and attitude, however, their practice towards tobacco use was poor

Factors underlying inadequate parents' awareness regarding pediatrics immunization: findings of cross-sectional study in Mosul-Iraq

Background Since last 100 years, immunization rate is one of the best public health outcome and service indicators. However, the immunization system is still imperfect; there are many countries that still have unvaccinated children. Parental decisions regarding immunization are very important to improve immunization rate. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between parental knowledge-practice (KP) regarding immunization with family and immunization providers’ factors. Methods This is a prospective cross-sectional study design. Immunization knowledge and practices among 528 Iraqi parents were evaluated through validated questionnaire. Familial data and immunization provider’s characteristics were collected from parents through interview. Results More than half of respondents/study population (66.1%) have adequate knowledge- practice scores. Significant associations were noted for knowledge-practice groups with father’s education level, mother’s education level, mother’s age at delivery, number of preschool children, parents gender, family income, provider types, and birth place (p < 0.05). Conclusion Immunization campaigns and awareness are required to improve parents’ knowledge and practice regarding immunization. The study results reinforce recommendations for use of educational programmes to improve the immunization knowledge and practice. Keywords: Immunization; Iraq; Parents; Knowledge; Practic