Oral health knowledge, attitude, and self-care practices among pharmacists in Riyadh, Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia.
OBJECTIVE
Identifying and addressing gaps in the oral health knowledge, attitude, and practices of pharmacists is important before they can be considered as a member of the oral health promotion team. The aim of this study was to determine the prevailing oral health knowledge, attitude, and self-care practices among a sample of pharmacists from Riyadh, Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study involving 200 pharmacists working in community- and hospital-based pharmacies was conducted using a structured, self-administered, close-ended questionnaire. The responses were collected and descriptive statistics of the mean scores of knowledge, attitude, and self-care practices were calculated. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed to compare the different groups. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess the association among knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice, and attitude-practice.


RESULTS
Overall, the mean scores of oral health knowledge, attitude, and self-care practices were found to be 5.27 ± 1.05, 3.89 ± 0.83, and 2.1 ± 0.61, respectively. Male non-Saudi pharmacists working in chain pharmacies, having 11-15 years of experience with a Master's degree qualification showed significantly higher mean knowledge and practices scores as compared to their counterparts. Spearman's correlation tests revealed a significant positive correlation of knowledge-practice (r = 0.262, P < 0.01), whereas knowledge-attitude (r = -0.149, P < 0.05) as well as attitudes-practices (r = -0.196, P < 0.01) were negatively correlated.


CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacists exhibited an average knowledge, negative attitude, and inadequate self-care practices toward oral health. However, increasing oral health knowledge can have profound improvement in oral self-care practices.
Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Olaya Campus, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad Abdual
MA
Baseer
Department of General Dentistry, Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Aleemullah
MA
Mehkari
Department of Dental Public Health, Olaya Campus, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fahad AbdulMohsen Fahad
FA
Al-Marek
Department of Advanced General Dentistry, Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Omar Ahmad
OA
Bajahzar
Attitude; knowledge; oral health; pharmacists; self-care practices