Doping Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pharmacists in Dessie, Northeast Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Doping includes tampering, possession; trafficking; administration, assisting, encouraging, aiding, conspiring a prohibited substance, and an anti-doping rule violation. Doping in sports is increasing and diversifying involving physiological, mechanical, and pharmacological techniques and becoming a serious public health problem. Pharmacy professionals have a vital role in the fight against doping. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacists on the use of doping agents by sportsmen and women. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional descriptive study was done targeting community pharmacists of Dessie city, Northeast Ethiopia. Structured questionnaires were distributed and collected between April and March of 2018. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Linear regression was used and the level of statistical significance was set at a p-value <0.05. RESULTS: Of the 61 pharmacy professionals who participated in the study, 46 (75.4%) were males and 15 (24.6%) were females. Only 25 (41.0%) and 13 (21.3%) of the respondents said they watch and play sport regularly, respectively. The majority of the participants, 50 (82%), supported the prohibition of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. The majority of the respondents, 55.7%, agree that pharmacists are a potential source of doping agents. Only 27.9% of them mentioned World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) as the source of information about doping agents. Regarding identifying the WADA status of 13 agents, the average score out of 13 was 4.95, while 80.3% of them scored less than or equal to seven. Factors associated with knowledge of participants were being male (β = 4.48, p= 0.02) and regularly watching sport (β = 2.64, p= 0.01). CONCLUSION: Even though the pharmacists’ low knowledge score revealed that they need further specialized training on doping and anti-doping, majority of them support banning doping substances from sport. Pharmacy curriculum developers should consider incorporating specific topics or courses about doping agents.