Exploring the knowledge, attitude and practice towards disaster medicine preparedness and readiness: A prescriptive insight by the community pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates

BACKGROUND: Proper disaster preparedness by community pharmacists has the potential to counter many of the factors that cause threats and high-risk outcomes. Their preparedness and awareness may also help health practitioners and governments to improve disaster response planning.

OBJECTIVES: This aims to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards disaster medicine preparedness and readiness among community pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted over the ten months among licensed community pharmacists who had three months' professional experience or more. Face-to-face interviews were carried out and a structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Logistic regression models were used to determine the factors influencing aboucine preparedness and readiness. SPSS Version 24 was used to analyze the data collected.

RESULTS: A total of 500 community pharmacists participated in the study. The average knowledge score was 25.6% with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of [21.7%, 29.4%]. Better knowledge scores were observed in the male gender (OR 2.43; 95% CI 1.05-3.72), participants aged ≥ 31 years old (OR 2.97; 95% CI 1.16-7.6), postgraduates (OR 4.36; 95% CI 2.6-7.3), participants from independent Pharmacies (OR 6.5; 95% CI 4.04-10.4 3), chief pharmacists (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.86-5.07), participants with 16 years and more experience years (OR 2.42; 95% CI 1.063-5.522) and participants who graduated from regional/international universities (OR 5.92; 95% CI 2.65-13.2). Better attitude and practice about disaster medicine preparedness were observed in postgraduates (OR 2.54; 95% CI 1.26-pharmacists from independent pharmacies (OR 1.35; 95% CI 2.43-2,.66), and chief pharmacists (OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.17-1.35).

CONCLUSIONS: It's essential to provide a continuing education program using different educational strategies urgently needed to improve community pharmacy competencies (e.g. knowledge attitudes, and perceptions) to improve the skills and practices regarding disaster medicine preparedness and readiness.