Knowledge, attitude, and practice of sudanese pharmacists toward COVID-19 in Khartoum State, Sudan: An online-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 disease became an outbreak declared by the WHO as a public health emergency that is explicitly threatening the globe. Measures must be taken to control it, and health-care workers' situations need to be assessed. Objectives: The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Sudanese pharmacists regarding COVID-19. Materials and Methods: The study was an online descriptive cross-sectional survey, conducted from April to June 2020, among the registered pharmacists in Khartoum, Sudan. Three hundred fifty registered pharmacists were asked to participate in this study, all of them were responded. An online standardized questionnaire was conducted, and data were collected by a convenience sampling method and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Results: Response rate was 100%, 65,7% of the participants were females. The median age was 27 years, 72.9% of the pharmacists were bachelor degree holders, and 73.1% of participants were community pharmacists. The years of experience were 1–5 years for 54.4% of them. About 69.4% of the participants had sufficient knowledge about COVID-19, 27.1% reported a positive attitude, and 62.6% reported a fair attitude. Moreover, 88.3% of them were wearing facemask, gloves, and frequently use sensitizers. Nearly 47.7% stated that they would not dispense any treatment of COVID-19 without a prescription. Tests revealed that knowledge was statistically significant with gender (P = 0.001) and attitude with age and years of experience (P = 0.039, 0.01), respectively. Conclusions: More than two-third of the participants have sufficient knowledge regarding COVID-19. Only one-tenth of them have a negative attitude, and their practice toward the disease was relatively good.