Community pharmacists' knowledge, prospective and practice towards health related illness at Hajj and Umrah: A cross sectional study

Objectives: To assess the community pharmacists' (CPs) knowledge, attitude, and perception of health related illness among pilgrims, and to investigate the common diseases and the pattern of medications dispensed by CPs during Hajj and Umrah seasons.Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over two months in 2022, through electronic platform using prevalidated questionnaires adopted from the literature. The questionnaires were divided into 4 sections assessing the CP's knowledge, attitude, and perception about health related illness, common dispensed agents, and required vaccination during Hajj and Umrah.Results: A total of 544 CPs, mostly between the age of 31-40 (69.9%), participated in this research. About 87.9% of the CPs received a pilgrim after performing their rituals coming to the pharmacy complaining of infection or health problem. In this study, 99.8%(n = 544), 99.6%(n = 543), and 92.7% (n = 505) of the CPs identified influenza, food poisoning, and diarrhea/gastroenteritis as the most common issues during the Hajj & Umrah season respectively. As results, anti-diarrheal agents (96.3%), painkillers (87.3%), inhalers (89.4%), and sunscreens (88.3%) were the most requested pharmaceutical agents. Additionally, 96.7% (n = 527) of the CPs agreed that vaccination is safe to be given to Hajj and Umrah pilgrims particularly for those aged > 65 years, and 89.4%(n = 487) of them reported awareness of vaccines that are required by Saudi Ministry of Health. Both Influenza and meningococcal meningitis vaccines were identified by 99.8% of the CPs, but polio vaccine was identified by 33.9%.Conclusion: Community pharmacists provided pharmaceutical care services for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. The majority of CPs had adequate knowledge about viral diseases during Hajj and Umrah and their requirement for vaccination. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and perception of community pharmacists regarding health-related illnesses among pilgrims during Hajj and Umrah seasons. The majority of community pharmacists demonstrated adequate knowledge about viral diseases and the need for vaccination during these seasons. The findings suggest that community pharmacists play an important role in providing pharmaceutical care services to pilgrims.