Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community Pharmacists on Medication Safety during Pregnancy: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Safe medication use during pregnancy requires a great un- derstanding of the benefits and risks associated upon use of the drug. Community Pharmacists (CPs) are the most accessible health care pro- fessionals for the pregnant women to get safety information about drugs. Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) of community pharmacists on medication safety during pregnancy. Methods: A cross- sectional study was conducted among community pharmacists of various community pharmacies located in Anantapur district. A total of 403 CPs were enrolled and subjected for interview by using pre-validated self- administered KAP questionnaire on medication safety during pregnancy. Descriptive statistics were used to represent the socio-demographic characteristics and KAP levels. Chi-square test was used to associate demographic profile with KAP levels. Results: A total of 403 community Pharmacists (CPs) were enrolled in the study. Majority of the pharmacists are males (345; 85.6%), residing in semi-urban area (184; 45.6%), pos- sess diploma in pharmacy (232; 57.5%) and having more than 10 years’ of experience. Among 403 CPs, only 21 (5.2%) had good knowledge, 380 (94.2%) had positive attitude and 119 (29.5%) have safe practice towards medication safety during pregnancy. Respondent’s age, qualification and experience were significantly associated with good knowledge and safe practices. Conclusion: Community pharmacists are having a positive atti- tude and some knowledge about safe medication use in pregnant women. Still, there is a wide gap in knowledge levels and practices of CPs towards safe medication use in pregnant women. This gap can be fulfilled by provid- ing focused educational intervention to all CPs.