Role of community pharmacy professionals in child health service provision in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional survey in six cities of Amhara regional state

Author(s)
Ayele, Asnakew Achaw
Cosh, Suzanne
Islam, Md Shahidul
East, Leah
Publication Date
2022-10-18
Abstract
<p><b>Background</b></p><p> Community pharmacy professionals have great potential to deliver various public health services aimed at improving service access, particularly in countries with a shortage of health professionals. However, little is known about their involvement in child health service provision in Ethiopia.</p><p><b> Objective</b></p><p> The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of involvement of community pharmacy professionals in child health service provision within Ethiopia.</p><p><b> Methods</b></p><p> A multi-center cross-sectional survey was conducted among 238 community pharmacy professionals from March to July 2020 in Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. Independent samples t-test and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the mean difference.</p><p><b> Results</b></p><p> Most community pharmacy professionals were 'involved' in providing child health services related to '<i>advice about vitamins/supplements</i>' (46.6%), '<i>advice about infant milk/formulas</i>' (47.1%) and '<i>responding to minor symptoms</i>' (50.8%) for children. The survey revealed that, community pharmacy professionals were less frequently involved in providing childhood '<i>vaccination</i>' services. Further, level of involvement of community pharmacy professionals differed according to participants' licensure level, setting type, responsibility in the facility and previous training experience in child health services.</p><p><b> Conclusion</b></p><p> Community pharmacy professionals have been delivering various levels of child health services, demonstrating ability and capacity in improving access to child health services in Ethiopia. However, there is a need for training and government support to optimize pharmacist engagement and contribution to service delivery.</p>
Citation
BMC Health Services Research, v.22, p. 1-8
ISSN
1472-6963
Pubmed ID
36258191
Link
Language
en
Publisher
BioMed Central Ltd
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Title
Role of community pharmacy professionals in child health service provision in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional survey in six cities of Amhara regional state
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink
openpublished/RoleCoshIslamEast2022JournalArticle.pdf 1049.895 KB application/pdf Published version View document