TY - JOUR AU - Aje, Akinniyi A. AU - Akinola, Mathew O. PY - 2022/10/07 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Assessment of knowledge and counselling on ophthalmic preparations among community pharmacists in Ibadan, Nigeria – an intervention study: https://doi.org/10.51412/psnnjp.2022.22 JF - The Nigerian Journal of Pharmacy JA - PSNNJP VL - 56 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://www.psnnjp.org/index.php/home/article/view/283 SP - AB - <p><strong>Background: </strong>The ratio of patients to ophthalmologists is rather high, affffording inadequate time for&nbsp;patient interaction, especially on the use of ophthalmic preparations. An assessment of community&nbsp;pharmacists' knowledge and counselling on ophthalmic preparations is vital to maintaining quality of&nbsp;care received by patients.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional study was carried out among consented community pharmacists&nbsp;practicing in Ibadan metropolis in southwest Nigeria, who were randomized into control and&nbsp;intervention arms. Baseline assessment of their knowledge and counselling on ophthalmic&nbsp;preparations was done. An educational intervention was then carried out among the intervention&nbsp;pharmacists. Postintervention assessment was carried out to evaluate the effffect of the intervention.&nbsp;Data was summarized with descriptive and inferential statistics.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 115 (control arm-62; intervention arm-53) community pharmacists participated in&nbsp;the study. Percentage of community pharmacists who understood punctal occlusion (control vs&nbsp;intervention) increased from 21.0% vs 22.6% at baseline to 45.4% vs 83.0% postintervention.&nbsp;Preintervention (control vs intervention), 83.9% vs 81.1% knew that eye drop bottle tip should not&nbsp;touch the eyes during application. This improved postintervention to 82.3% vs 100%. A signifificant&nbsp;difffference in participants' knowledge and counselling on ophthalmic preparations was observed&nbsp;postintervention. Participants' knowledge comparison (control vs intervention) was 7.79 ± 1.79 vs&nbsp;7.60 ± 1.65 (p = 0.565) and 8.89 ± 1.73 vs 10.83 ± 1.63 (p &lt; 0.001) at baseline and postintervention,&nbsp;respectively. The counselling comparison (control vs intervention) was 2.82 ± 1.93 vs 2.57 ± 1.91 (p =&nbsp;0.476) at baseline, and 2.97 ± 2.48 vs 5.98 ± 1.69 (p &lt; 0.001) postintervention.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The educational intervention, which addressed the knowledge and counselling gaps&nbsp;discovered at baseline, improved the community pharmacists' knowledge and counselling on&nbsp;ophthalmic preparations.</p> ER -