Abstract
Background/Introduction: Dispensing during pregnancy requires careful estimation of the risk/benefit ratio for the mother and her Baby [1, 2]. Community pharmacists (CPs) play a critical role in the safe use of medications during pregnancy. The Saudi government has established the Wasfaty system, which is an electronic system linking government hospitals and primary care clinics to community pharmacies to facilitate dispensing medications for out-patients [3-5]. Objective/Aim: To evaluate the CPs knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards the safe use of medications during pregnancy in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted from March to June 2021, among CPs who were working in community pharmacies that have the Wasfaty service. The questionnaire includes Likert type questions to assess the KAP of CPs towards safe use of medications during pregnancy. Descriptive statistics were performed to represent the socio-demographic characteristics and KAP levels using SPSS Statistical Package (2015). Results: 90 out of 260 (34.6%) of CPs were responded to the survey. The median age of respondents was 33 years (range 25-60). The majority of the participants were men (85:95.6%), dispensed < 50 prescriptions per day, had only undergraduate qualifications, and had an average of 9 years of work experience. Most of the CPs were aware of the teratogen definition (83.33%), and they were aware of the US FDA guidance on safe use medicine during pregnancy (84.44%). With respect to their knowledge of the teratogenic risk of 20 commonly known medications, 7.8% of CPs had the appropriate knowledge of > 90% of the listed medications, while 11.11% had the appropriate knowledge of < 60% of the listed medications. The majority of CPs had the appropriate knowledge of > 60 to < 90% of the listed medications during pregnancy. Among all CPs, 60 % were confident when dispense drugs during pregnancy. 94.4% were taking extra caution when dispensing drugs during pregnancy. 50.6% of CPs thought that all OTC drugs are not safe in pregnant women. Almost half of CPs were shown unsafe dispensing practices for pregnant women as shown in. Conclusion: CPs have adequate knowledge of the safe use of medications during pregnancy. However, it has not been reflected in both their attitude and practice. Policies and procedures in community pharmacies should be established for dispensing medications during pregnancy. Training of CPs about medication counseling, dispensing medications during pregnancy should be performed on a regularbasis.