Patient Preference and Adherence (Aug 2020)

Exit-Knowledge About Dispensed Medications and Associated Factors Among Ambulatory Patients Attending Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Mekelle, Ethiopia

  • Desta DM,
  • Gebrehiwet WG,
  • Kasahun GG,
  • Asgedom SW,
  • Atey TM,
  • Wondafrash DZ,
  • Tsadik AG

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 1523 – 1531

Abstract

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Desilu Mahari Desta,1 Welday Gebremikeal Gebrehiwet,2 Gebremicheal Gebreslassie Kasahun,3 Solomon Weldegebreal Asgedom,1 Tesfay Mehari Atey,1 Dawit Zewdu Wondafrash,4 Afewerki Gebremeskel Tsadik1 1Clinical Pharmacy Unit, School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia; 2School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia; 3Department of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Aksum University, Aksum, Tigray, Ethiopia; 4Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigray, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Desilu Mahari DestaClinical Pharmacy Unit, School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O. Box: 1871, Mekelle, Tigray, EthiopiaTel +251-914681245Email [email protected]: Optimizing exit-knowledge of ambulatory patients is a major professional responsibility of pharmacists to reassure safe and cost-effective medicines use. The study assessed the exit-knowledge of ambulatory patients on their dispensed medications and associated factors.Patients and Methods: Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among ambulatory patients who visited the outpatient pharmacy of Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (ACSH) from December 2019 to February 2020. Data were entered, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Binary logistic regression was employed to determine factors associated with exit-knowledge on their dispensed medications. At a 95% confidence interval (CI), p≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The study analyzed 400 patients; more than half of the participants were males (55.5%). The mean age of the participants was 41.3 years (mean ± standard deviation (SD), ± 13). Less than half of the patients did not recall the name (44.5%) and major side effects (31.2%) of each medication. Furthermore, the overall sufficient knowledge was found to be 81%. Patients with single marital status were 4.454 times to have sufficient exit-knowledge of their dispensed medications than widowed (p=0.050) participants. Besides, patients who responded neutral clarity of pharmacist instruction had 4.745 times sufficient exit-knowledge than those who responded not clear (p=0.049). On the other hand, participants who got “enough” (p< 0.0001) and “not enough” (p=0.006) information from the pharmacist were found to have a positive association with sufficient exit-knowledge than those who responded “I do not know”.Conclusion: The majority of patients had sufficient exit-knowledge of their dispensed medications. Martially single, neutral clarity of pharmacist’s instructions and adequacy of the information delivered by the pharmacist were positively associated with participants’ exit-knowledge of their dispensed medications. Hence, conducting a multicenter study, we recommend pharmacists to counsel their patients to underpin patients’ knowledge of their dispensed medications.Keywords: exit-knowledge, dispensing, ambulatory, patients

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