Community Pharmacists Knowledge Attitude and Practice on Rational Dispensing of Topical Corticosteroids: Pre-and Post-Intervention Study

Background: Community pharmacists have an important role in dispensing topical corticosteroids only with prescription. They should be aware about the uses and the potential side effects associated with misuse of topical corticosteroids. It is necessary to educate the community pharmacist regarding the clinical aspects of the topical corticosteroids. Therefore, our study aims to assess, evaluate the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) among Community Pharmacist regarding dispensing of topical corticosteroids and educating community pharmacists. Materials and Methods: A Prospective Pre-Post study carried out among Community Pharmacist. A Self-prepared and validated KAP questionnaires were distributed to the community Pharmacist through face-to-face interview were done after seminar was conducted using audio-video visuals is given then post study was done after 1 month with the same set of questionnaires. Results: Out of 116 Community Pharmacist men made up 80.17% more participants than women. The percentage of people aged 20 to 30 was 33.62%. Most of the participants were diploma holders (Diploma in Pharmacy) with 76.72%. The participants in our study are experienced around 24.14% were having more than 21 years of experience. Pre-test knowledge, attitude, and practice among the pharmacists was less with mean +/- standard deviation (46.7 +/- 10.33), (65 +/- 8.38), (59.83 +/- 14.45) compared with post-test knowledge, attitude, and practice was high with mean (87.74 +/- 11.03), (87.79 +/- 6.56), (82.50 +/- 9.50). Post-test showed significant improvement in Knowledge Attitude and Practice score respectively compared to pre-test (p<0.05). Conclusion: Educating community pharmacists regarding topical corticosteroids reduces the misuse of topical corticosteroids by increasing knowledge about topical corticosteroids.