Barriers and facilitators to provision of written consumer medicines information among community pharmacists in Malaysia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Objectives This study examined the barriers and facilitators to the provision of consumer medication information leaflets (CMIL) by community pharmacists in Malaysia and assessed the relationship between the participants' characteristics and provision of CMIL. Methods This was a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire survey conducted among pharmacists working in randomly selected community pharmacies in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, and the State of Selangor, Malaysia. Multiple response analysis was conducted to examine the barriers and facilitators. Chi-square test was used to assess the relationship between the participants' characteristics and provision of CMIL. IBM SPSS Statistics version 23 software was used for all statistical analysis. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Key findings A total of 162 participants were involved in the study. Response rate was 77.5% (162 out of 209) and completion rate 100%. The two most frequently reported barriers to non-provision of CMIL were because the customer has taken the medicine previously (29.4%) and the customer receives all the information they need verbally (20.0%). The two most frequently reported facilitators to the provision of CMIL were because the community pharmacists felt they have a duty of care to inform the customer about their medicine (16.3%) and the customer has a right to information about their medicine (15.6%). There was a significant association between the provision of CMIL and participants educational level (P = 0.005) and awareness of CMIL (P < 0.001). Conclusions The key barriers to the provision of CMIL by the community pharmacists appeared to be related to attitudinal factors, while key facilitators appeared to be related to the professional obligations of the community pharmacists. Increased awareness and educational strategies would be important in improving the provision of CMIL by community pharmacists in Malaysia.