Attitudes of Pharmacists towards Patient Package Insert in Iranian Drug Packages

Abstract

Background and purpose: A drug brochure or Patient Package Insert (PPI) is a sheet of paper in drug package that provides necessary information for effective and afe use of drugs. PPIs are among the main sources of drug information for general public, so, they should be clear and comprehensible. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes of pharmacists about PPIs in Iranian drug packages. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 203 pharmacists working in pharmacies affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were selected via random sampling. The attitudes of pharmacists about drug brochures in Iranian drug packages were assessed using a researcher-made questionnaire. Content validity of the scale was confirmed and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha in Excel 2013. Results: In this study, 76.5% of pharmacists believed that physicians rarely ask about the contents of PPIs. Also, only 7% of pharmacists reported mistakes in PPIs to pharmaceutical technicians and experts. Findings showed that 69.8% found that the information in Iranian PPIs do not have a considerable effect on enhancing their knowledge. Conclusion: According to this study, pharmacists believed that the PPIs were not helpful in terms of size and font of contents, enhancing pharmacists’ knowledge and caused more fear about drugs’ side effects. Therefore, appropriate measures should be taken by food and drug administration when preparing PPIs to improve the contents of PPIs.

Keywords

• medical leaflet
• pharmacist
• attitude
• patient
• pharmacy
• mazandaran