Background:
Pharmacoeconomics is a field that deals with health economics and focuses on the medication's cost and outcome. Currently, Pharmacoeconomics became an important field of research. Pharmacoeconomics can be taught through various methods. However, it seems that Pharmacoeconomics in Saudi Arabia is underestimated due to lack of studies conducted on this subject in Saudi Arabia.
Objective:
To evaluate the awareness and knowledge of pharmacists and pharmacy students regarding pharmaco-economics in Saudi Arabia.
Methods:
This study was cross-sectional questionnaire based study that was conducted from July 2020 to August 2020. The study was conducted among pharmacists and pharmacy students. The study was done through an online questionnaire that included questions on demographics, awareness and knowledge. SPSS program was used to analyze the collected data.
Results:
This study included 205 participants. Among them, 85.9% reported involvement of Pharmacoeconomics in undergraduate course, whereas only 22% felt that what they learnt was enough to use in practice. The total knowledge was high among 34.1% of participants. There were several factors that affected the level of knowledge, including PhD (P=0.0001), regulatory field (P=0.048), short time devoted for the course as the cause of imperfection of learning(P=0.038), and being interested in taking more training (P=0.0001).
Conclusion:
There was low knowledge among pharmacists and pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia regarding Pharmacoeconomics that require more training.
Key words: Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacists, Knowledge, Awareness, Saudi Arabia.
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