ABSTRACT
Background: Written medication information is important to health care professionals and patients, alike. Medication package inserts (PI) can prove useful sources for written medication information for pharmacist and patients. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the Sudanese pharmacists toward PIs. Methods: A total of 120 randomly selected Sudanese community and hospital pharmacists, were addressed with a questionnaire of 14 free to answer closed-ended questions. Results: Results showed clear dominance of the young (96.5%), females (63.3%)pharmacists population, whose majority (90.8%) had their undergraduates studies in Sudan. Majority (79.2%) of respondents was keen to read the PIs, and (75.8%)considered them as reliable written medication information sources and references. Correlation between respondents’ reliability and reading of PIs was significant (**p=0.038). How to use medications (95%) their dose (92.5%), and compliance (67.5%), topped the medication information particulars provided by respondents to patients. Drug-interactions and side-effects (36.7%) were downplayed by the respondents. Only a small minority (21.7%) of respondents used to advise patients to read PIs. Majority (85%) of respondents believed that PIs were difficult for patients to understand. Their texts’ language (68.2%), technical terminology (75%) and font size (10%) were cited as main barriers to understandability. Conclusions: To secure usefulness of PIs, they shall be written in lay terminology of patients’ native language. Pharmacists shall seek independent sources of medication information, advice and motivate patients to read PIs and keep them for ongoing reference.
ABSTRACT
Background: The main objective of this study which was the first of its kind in Sudan was the evaluation of the medication informational contents (section headings) of pharmaceutical companies’ promotional brochures, their possible benefits, reliability and usefulness in the proper and rational use of drugs. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-one (n=351) brochures were collected from randomly selected doctors’ clinics in Khartoum, Sudan. Ninety-two of those brochures were excluded for being either duplicates, reminder brochures, promoting medical devices or cosmetics. The remaining (259), were then screened to match their macro-informational contents (section headings) against same advised in world health organization ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion. Results: Almost all the screened brochures displayed unbalanced and poorly evidence supported (48.2%) medication information messages, which minimized the risks of the promoted drugs (45.4%), while displaying section headings encouraging more use of the promoted products, in higher frequencies (93.66%).There was significant difference between the frequencies of display of medication information section headings of eight out of nine tested section headings, of a multinational and branded generic brochures (p. value ranged between 0.01 and 0.000). Conclusions: Screened brochures were found to display poorly reliable and unbalanced medication information. Healthcare providers shall, accordingly, seek independent medication information sources, and not solely depend on commercial sources of medication information. Official regulators shall strictly define and mandate medication information contents in printed pharmaceutical promotional materials. Healthcare providers should, also, master the skills of appraising such promotional printed materials if rational medication use is to be achieved.