Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Pharmacists regarding Dietary Supplements

Abstract

Background: Dietary supplement (DS) products are sold in pharmacies very widely. However, there is no specific approval or definition for the legal and scientific usage of such products. The study aims to evaluate pharmacist's knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding dietary supplements. Material and methods: A cross-sectional was designed to collect responses from community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia from February to April 2022. The data was collected via an anonymous, self-administered; postal questionnaire consisting of demographic information, knowledge (subjective and objective questions), attitude, and practice evaluation part. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS. Results: This study showed that although knowledge has a significant effect on attitude and practice, attention should be paid to other underlying factors such as experience, pharmacy ownership situation, and academic degree which might have a positive impact on pharmacists᾽ practice. According to this study, although many underlying factors such as experience, and pharmacy ownership have an impact on pharmacy practice regarding dietary supplements, the most attention should be paid to knowledge as the main factor and more attention should be paid to training on dietary supplements could be recommended.