Assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists on the pain management and implications in UAE children

OBJECTIVE: There are concerns with the optimal management of pain in children, with sub-optimal management negatively impacting on physical, emotional social functioning, exacerbated by pain in children being multi-modal. Community pharmacists across countries play an important role in managing pain in patients including children’s pain. Consequently, the objective of this study is to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of pain management in children among community pharmacists in UAE. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire that was developed and piloted. The final questionnaire, which comprised two parts, had acceptable validity and internal consistency. RESULTS: 867 out of 922 community pharmacists took part in UAE (94% response rate) and were visited by trained researchers. The most from independent pharmacies (53.9%) and having more than 10 years of experience (68.9%). The overall KAP score was 70%, with gender, pharmacy type, years of experience, educational level and position significantly associated with KAP. Encouraging knowledge areas included pain is one of the vital signs in children (88.6%), the intensity of pain should be rated by a pharmacist before discussing treatment options (92.2%) and the choice of treatment should depend on issues including intensity and duration (87.2%). Areas of concern included the contents of the WHO analgesic ladder (32.0%) and children may sleep in spite of severe pain (42.9%). CONCLUSION: There were areas of good knowledge of pain management among community pharmacists in UAE. Areas of concern including knowledge of the WHO analgesic ladder need to be addressed as part of future educational input during training and post qualification.