Development and validation of an instrument to measure the professional’s knowledge of dispensing medication (CDM-51) in community pharmacies

Medication dispensing performed without the necessary information on proper use can result in harmful effects to the individual, and therefore providing this service with quality for the users is necessary to promote the rational use of medication; however, in a developing country this activity is performed largely by unqualified people and in an inappropriate way. This study aims to develop and validate a study instrument that measures the knowledge of medication dispensing for the professionals involved in this practice (pharmacist, pharmacy technician in the pharmacy, and clerk/assistant). The study has methodological design and is characterized by the development and validation of an instrument to measure the knowledge of dispensation. A questionnaire denominated CDM-51 was elaborated and divided in two parts: the first collects the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, and the second has 51 questions to assess the knowledge construct regarding dispensation. The validity of content was realized through the evaluation by seven experts regarding the relevance and clarity of the items. A pretest and main validation study with 30 and 79 pharmacy professionals respectively, from the city of Ribeirão Preto in the Brazilian state of São Paulo were carried out, and questions presented to the respondents were corrected. The analysis of the internal consistency of the KR-20 (Kuder-Richardson) was 0.837, and validity construct evidence was found (p value: 0.001) that participants with formal education have greater knowledge of medication dispensing. This work contributes to increasing the quality of services provided by dispensing pharmacies and points out the importance of training for formal education to perform this service, thus promoting the rational use of medication.