Evaluation of Attitude of Community Pharmacists to E-Pharmacy in Osun State of Nigeria

Abstract

Governments of many nations, including developing countries are striving to achieve better health for all through primary health care with digitalisation of their systems. This provides a platform for involvement of private sector to which community pharmacy belongs. The question remains however, on whether community pharmacists are ready for the changes. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the attitude of community pharmacists to e-pharmacy in Osun State of Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive survey of eighty-two community pharmacists drawn using simple random sampling method was utilised. The study employed primary data, collected with a set of pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire having one main section. The items sought to elicit information on the attitude of the community pharmacists to e-pharmacy and factors influencing the community pharmacists’ attitude on a Likert scales of agreement and importance respectively both with weighting scores of 0 - 4. Weighted averages (WA) and medians (Mdn) were employed in summarising items for attitude and factors respectively.  Weighted averages of responses of 0 - 2 and 3 - 4 were taken to connote negative and positive attitudes to e-pharmacy respectively. Overall attitude was computed as mean of the weighted averages (MWA). Collected data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics at 5% level of significance. The results show that attitude of the respondents to e-pharmacy was negative (MWA = 2.40, t (81) = 12.56, p = .000) and that organisational factors including business size (Mdn ± IQR = 3±2) and business performance (Mdn ± IQR = 3±1) of community pharmacy were the most and only significant of the set of factors (B (5) = -.204, P = .043) influencing the attitude of the community pharmacists to e-pharmacy. The study concluded that community pharmacists in Osun state of Nigeria possessed a negative attitude to e-pharmacy and may be ill-prepared for implementation of the technology.

Suggested citation

Omoniyi Ola-Olorun , Margaret Afolabi , E. Uwadone (2024). Evaluation of Attitude of Community Pharmacists to E-Pharmacy in Osun State of Nigeria Koozakar Proceedings, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.69798/20898713

Metric