Self-monitoring of blood pressure and the role of community pharmacists in Kuwait.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the types of devices for self-monitoring of blood pressure available to consumers in Kuwait and the pharmacists' knowledge and level of information provided to consumers when purchasing such devices.


METHODS
It was possible to contact 196 of the 230 eligible pharmacies from five governorates in Kuwait. Ten of these were used to pretest the questionnaire and six declined to participate. Another six did not carry any blood pressure monitoring devices and hence were excluded. Data was then collected from pharmacists at the 174 remaining community pharmacies via face-to-face structured interview of the respondents at their work sites.


RESULTS
Of the 174 pharmacists, 173 (99.4%) claimed to offer or provide advice to clients at the time of purchasing devices, 117 (67.1%) of them stating that they did so even if the patients did not ask. Although 147 (84.5%) respondents correctly identified the mercury sphygmomanometer as the most reliable device for measuring blood pressure, less than half (86, 49.4%) claimed to know how to check the accuracy of the devices they sold. Only 25 (14.4%) pharmacists could actually identify the correct procedure for checking the accuracy of the devices and only 25 (14.4%) pharmacists could correctly identify cutoff points for systolic and diastolic blood pressure delineating clinical hypertension. Only 1 pharmacist could correctly name a reference source for blood pressure measurement.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a need for improvement of community pharmacists' competence in supporting patients and in providing them with information regarding devices for measuring blood pressure in Kuwait.
Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Health Science Center, Kuwait University, Kuwait. w.matowe@hsc.edu.kw
Wandikayi C
WC
Matowe
Eman A
EA
Abahussain
Abdelmoneim
A
Awad
Phillip A
PA
Capps
D000328:Adult; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D024382:Professional Role; D019722:Sphygmomanometers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data