Community Pharmacists' Knowledge, Attitude, and Professional Practice Behaviors Towards Dietary Supplements: Results from Multi-Center Survey in Ethiopia

Background: The utilization of dietary supplement (DS) is dramatically increasing across the globe, but knowledge of the community pharmacists regarding these products has not been well studied. As to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no previous study explored community pharmacists knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards DS in Ethiopia context. Hence, this study was undertaken to assess KAP of the community pharmacist about DS. Methods: A cross-sectional multi-center survey of community pharmacists in different cities of Ethiopia was conducted over a period of five months from January to May 2019. The survey evaluated demographic information and KAP of participants related to DS. A stratified random sample of registered pharmacy practitioners all over the country was chosen to respond to the survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. The result was considered significant if P < 0.05. Results: Of the 672 surveys distributed, 608 pharmacists accepted to participate in the study with a response rate of 90.47% and only 600 met the inclusion criteria for further evaluation. Of pharmacists surveyed, 66.7% had adequate knowledge while 53.7% of the pharmacists were within a positive attitude range and lower proportion (41.2%) of pharmacists were found within the good practice range about DS. Age, education level, experience, and position in community pharmacies were significantly associated with KAP. Significant positive linear correlations between knowledge-attitude (r =0.471, p < 0.001), knowledge-practice (r = 0.546, p < 0.001), and attitude-practice (r = 0.741, p < 0.001) were also found. Conclusion: The finding of this survey suggested that the majority of pharmacists had poor professional practice towards DS in spite of having adequate knowledge and a positive attitude regarding DS. Emphasis should be given to teaching/training community pharmacists how to critically evaluate the use, efficacy, and safety of common DS.