Current Perspectives, Practices, and Barriers Faced by Community Pharmacists Regarding Pharmaceutical Care Services for Diabetes Mellitus in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Background: Providing accurate and sufficient information is a crucial requirement for delivering effective diabetes care, making it essential for community pharmacists to possess adequate knowledge of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its management. Objective: To investigate community pharmacists’ level of expertise and engagement in providing counseling and health promotion services for individuals with DM in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. The community Pharmacies were chosen via random sampling and researchers then conducted face-to-face interviews with them using the structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included demographic data, 14 questions on the knowledge and 9 questions about the practice concerning pharmaceutical care for Diabetes Mellitus. Results: The average age ± SD was 31 ± 6.3. Of the total 516 community pharmacists recruited in the study, 37.2% (n=192) were male and 62.8% (n=324) were female. The average knowledge score about DM prevention and management was 9.7 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) [9.5, 9.9] and the average practice score about DM prevention and management was 7.1 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) [6.9, 7.2]. Better knowledge scores were observed in chief pharmacists (OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.08–1.56), pharmacists with 6–10 Years of experience (OR 6.92; 95% CI 3.43–8.86), pharmacist with > 10 years of experience (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.67–2.36), when the number of patients the pharmacist serve is 5–10 (OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.06–1.53) and being trained on DM prevention and management (OR 2.18; 95% CI 1.92–2.47). Similarly, better practice scores were observed in older participants (OR1.02; 95% CI 1.001–1.03), chain pharmacies (OR 1.42; 95% CI 1.20–1.68), chief pharmacists (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.18–2.06), when the number of patients the pharmacists serve was 5–10 (OR 12.26; 95% CI 7.26–16.19), when the number of patients the pharmacists serve was 11–20 (OR 4.23; 95% CI 3.54–5.06) and being trained on DM prevention and management (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.11–1.59). The most commonly reported barriers to providing counseling and health promotion services for diabetes mellitus (DM) in community pharmacies include a lack of coordination with other healthcare professionals (77%) and insufficient knowledge or clinical skills (68.7%). Conclusion: Our study revealed that community pharmacy staff members displayed a noteworthy level of involvement in providing pharmaceutical care services for patients with diabetes mellitus. Based on these findings, it is recommended to enhance pharmacy education by incorporating more advanced, evidence-based training and curricula focusing on disease management and appropriate therapies, particularly for diabetes.