FACTORS RELATING TO THE PROMOTION OF THE APPROPRIATE USE OF HERBAL PRODUCTS BY COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69598/tbps.17.2.53-68Keywords:
herbal products, community pharmacists, promoting to use of herbal productsAbstract
Community pharmacists are healthcare professionals who work closely with the community. Community pharmacists must be prepared to provide herbal product advice to support an increasing demand for herbal products. This research was a cross-sectional survey aiming to identify factors that relate to which community pharmacists promote the appropriate use of herbal products. The survey was sampled by community pharmacists. Data were collected between October 2021 and December 2021 through a questionnaire sent out by mail. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used for data analysis. The subjects returned 419 questionnaires. Most respondents were female (68.3%), with a mean age of 39.74 + 9.70 years. Most respondents had achieved the highest level of education (52.0%), that is a Bachelor degree (5-year pharmacy program). Respondents had an average of 10.84 + 8.15 years of work experience in a drugstore. Most respondents (75.7%) had some experience using herbal products to treat illnesses. Statistically significant factors that related to which community pharmacists promoted the appropriate use herbal product were gender (p-value < 0.001); the experience of community pharmacists in herbal product use for treatment (p-value = 0.007); herbal product knowledge on indication and direction (p-value = 0.026); knowledge of contraindication of herbal products (p-value < 0.001); consumer retrieval of herbal products (p-value = 0.023); and hearing or seeing advertisements for herbal products by other community pharmacists (p-value = 0.011). Therefore, educating and and encouraging community pharmacists to use herbal products to take care of their own health has an effect on them in encouraging other people to use herbal products.
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