Assessment of community pharmacists’ perceived barriers and disadvantages in providing health promotion services in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

The study’s objective was to assess Community Pharmacists’ perceived barriers and disadvantages in providing health promotion services in Jos, Nigeria. The study was conducted among consenting Community Pharmacists in Jos Metropolis with the aid of a pretested structured questionnaire. It was a descriptive cross sectional survey of 70 Community Pharmacists out of 78 registered as at the time of sampling. Data was collated and analysed using the Epi-Info^TMVersion 7.1.4 and SPSS Version 16. Descriptive statistics of the participants was done using Means, and Percentages. Chi-square test of goodness of fit was used to determine if there was a specific pattern in the observed responses of the study participants and if this differed significantly from the expected responses of a standardized population. Logistic regression test was used to determine whether baseline characteristics of study participants had any predictive value on participants’ perceptions of disadvantages and barriers. The mean age of the participants was 39 years and most of the study group was within the age group of 31-40 years.  The following were the barriers identified in this study: not enough time, lack of standard practice guidelines, ownership of premises by non-pharmacists, insufficient management support, poor perception of their roles by the community and low profitability. Disadvantages according to this study are: need for continuous training of Community Pharmacists in health promotion services and need to hire more staff. The findings of this study identified a number of organizational barriers and disadvantages that may limit the involvement of the Community Pharmacists in health promotion services. This suggests that in the development of future Public Health programs in Nigeria, efforts must be made to overcome these barriers and disadvantages by employing adequate policies and tools in order to optimize the Community Pharmacists’ contributions towards improving public health indices.