Community Pharmacists’ Perception of the Relevance of Drug Package Insert as Source of Drug Information in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the opinions of community pharmacists on the usefulness and reliability of drug package inserts (DPI) as drug information source, and necessary modifications needed to improve their contents. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study using a pretested questionnaire was administered to sixty-one superintendent community pharmacists (CP) across two cities in southwestern Nigeria. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data and evaluate respondents’ opinion. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the rank variables with p < 0.05 considered significant. Results: A majority of CP believed that information from DPI was precise and may be helpful in achieving therapeutic success (n = 42; 72.8 %). CP believed there is need for the modification of DPI content with respect to patient-related information (n = 52; 92.8 %) and health provider-related information (n = 52; 94.5%), non-uniformity of information on the same generic medicines (n = 31; 50.8%), and ambiguity of content (n = 29; 47.5 %). Years of experience in practice significantly influenced respondents’ perception of precision and satisfaction with DPI as source of information. Conclusions: Community pharmacists in southwestern Nigeria believed that a properly modified drug package insert could be a useful and reliable source of drug information in daily practice.