Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Community Pharmacists' Perception of the Relevance of Drug Package Insert as Source of Drug Information in Southwestern Nigeria

Kenechuckwu Diobi, Titilayo O Fakeye , Rasaq Adisa

Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;

For correspondence:- Titilayo Fakeye Email: titilayo.fakeye@yahoo.com Tel:+2348052234484

Received: 9 April 2013 Accepted: 30 April 2013 Published: 12 June 2013

Citation: Diobi K, Fakeye TO, Adisa R. Community Pharmacists' Perception of the Relevance of Drug Package Insert as Source of Drug Information in Southwestern Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2013; 12(3):439-443 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v12i3.25

© 2013 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the opinions of community pharmacists on the usefulness and reliability of drug package inserts (DPI) as drug information source, and necessary modifications needed to improve their contents.

Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study using a pretested questionnaire was administered to sixty-one superintendent community pharmacists (CP) across two cities in southwestern Nigeria. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data and evaluate respondents’ opinion. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the rank variables with p < 0.05 considered significant.

Results: A majority of CP believed that information from DPI was precise and may be helpful in achieving therapeutic success (n = 42; 72.8 %). CP believed there is need for the modification of DPI content with respect to patient-related information (n = 52; 92.8 %) and health provider-related information (n = 52; 94.5%), non-uniformity of information on the same generic medicines (n = 31; 50.8 %), and ambiguity of content (n = 29; 47.5 %). Years of experience in practice significantly influenced respondents’ perception of precision and satisfaction with DPI as source of information.

Conclusions: Community pharmacists in southwestern Nigeria believed that a properly modified drug package insert could be a useful and reliable source of drug information in daily practice.

Keywords: Community pharmacist, Drug information, Drug package insert