Participants were classified as hypertensive and or diabetic based on their self-report. This could results in a lower prevalence of the disease since some participants are usually in a state of denial when they are diagnosed of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Furthermore, some participants might be having the conditions but have not yet been diagnosed.
Hospital pharmacists are an integral part of the healthcare system in the prevention of the spread of COVID-19. FIP emphasized their vital role in providing the essential services to both patients and healthcare teams through the supply of medicines and pharmaceutical care. Overall, hospital pharmacists in Qatar have poor knowledge about COVID-19; which is not consistent with other countries. It has been noticed in our study that the level of knowledge regarding the treatment aspects of COVID-19 is not sufficient, as reflected by the low percentage of correct responses to treatment-related questions. Many pharmacists did not answer correctly the questions related to antiviral medications, hydroxychloroquine, and corticosteroid use in COVID-19 management. Insufficient knowledge of pharmacists about treatment can be attributed to the fact that there is no current treatment for COVID-19. As such, it is difficult for pharmacists to remain aware of the latest evidence-based recommendations regarding COVID-19 treatment as the current COVID-19 management and treatment are being evaluated in clinical trials, consequently the treatment protocols frequently change based on the latest research results. On the other hand, pharmacists had better knowledge about the general aspects of the disease, which may reflect pharmacists’ interest in having sufficient information about disease control and prevention strategies to protect themselves, their family, and society. Global websites such as WHO have been reported to be the primary resource of COVID-19 related information used by pharmacists, followed by the country local official resources. In Qatar, hospital pharmacists described those official national resources such as: Qatar Ministry of Public Health/ Hamad Medical Corporation Guidelines to be the most useful resources during COVID-19 pandemic. This reflects the trust hospital pharmacists have regarding Qatar health authorities’ preparedness to control the pandemic.
In Qatar, hospital pharmacists’ attitude regarding preventive measures showed healthy practices such as self-isolation when needed. Similar healthy attitudes have been reported by pharmacists in other regions. Large proportions of hospital pharmacists are in favor of taking flu vaccine (79%), and COVID-19 vaccine (81%) this year. Such an attitude may reflect hospital pharmacists’ consciousness about their health and the community health, and their willingness to contribute to disease control. Similar acceptance level for COVID-19 vaccine was reported by pharmacists in Kuwait (80%) as well as in United States of America for both COVID-19 and influenza vaccines (78% and 95%, respectively). The current work is advantaged by including pharmacists working at different 10 large governmental hospitals in Qatar, with a response rate reaching more than 30% and 90% confidence interval. On the other hand; the results of this study are limited by the novel nature of the disease. Knowledge about different clinical aspects related to COVID-19 is still to be built, and the available information is changing overtime according to the new research and investigations. Moreover, new variants of SARS-CoV-2 were detected by the end of 2020, and further assessment of its transmissibility, severity, risk of reinfection, and antibody response is needed. The generalizability of our results is restricted to hospital pharmacists, assessment of knowledge and attitude of community pharmacists would be encouraged in future research.
For further enhancement of hospital pharmacists’ knowledge about COVID-19, we would recommend providing continuous education regarding the updates about COVID-19 and the new research results, with a focus on treatment aspects, as pharmacists are the medication experts and the source of medication-related information for other healthcare providers and patients. Furthermore, serial newsletters, and journal club activities for recently published research are all encouraged. Such educational activities need to be tailored according to current gathering restrictions related to COVID-19, where webinars and online applications can be utilized to encourage participation in a safe environment.
