Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
52nd ESCP Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy. Implementing and scaling sustainable clinical pharmacy practice, Krakow, Polonya, 21 - 23 Ekim 2024, cilt.47, ss.582, (Özet Bildiri)
Background: In the contemporary world, the global propagation of novel infectious diseases is a significant possibility, as seen during COVID 19 pandemic [1]. Since the awareness and knowledge level of each individual is not equal, and this threatens all the World, it is necessary to measure the knowledge levels of individuals and to plan accordingly [2].
Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the risk awareness of participants regarding infectious diseases, to measure the protection level of individuals from communicable diseases and to investigate how a pharmacist should approach this attitude and take precautions.
Method: This study was conducted between 15–22 January 2024, on the individuals from all around Turkey, over the age of 18 and not having infectious disease at the time of enrolment. Communicable Diseases Risk Awareness and Protection Scale (CDRAPS) and additional questions were applied via Google forms (survey link was shared via social media platforms). Sociodemographic data of participants, infectious diseases that participants lack knowledge about, patient training methods preferred by the participants and CDRAPS were assessed. Descriptive statistical analyzes were performed using the SPSS 22.0 program to analyze the data.
Results: 128 participants with a mean age of 36.5 ± 2.32 were participated in the study. 85 (66%) of them were female and 69 (54%) participants got bachelor degree. 84 (66%) of the participators have had an infectious disease before and Covid-19 (37%) and influenza (33%) were among the diseases that the participants were most frequently exposed to. 64 (50%) of the participators have never had a training about infectious diseases before and only 15 (12%) of the participators got training from the pharmacist. More than two-thirds of respondents (78%) declared that they would like to receive training from a pharmacist. Participants mostly felt uninformed about HIV (34%), influenza (16%) and sexually transmitted diseases (14%) and wished to get training about. Written and oral training combination was the most preferred training type (52%). The mean CDRAPS score of the participants was 147.02 ± 17.91. Participants got the highest score (33.91 ± 4.24) from personal protection awareness subscale and lowest score (13.57 ± 1.75) from hand washing behaviors subscale.
Conclusion: It was shown that the participants’ risk awareness and protection levels were not sufficient. Taking into account that contagious diseases can be prevented if necessary precautions are taken, and otherwise they spread and threaten the society, importance of educating the public, mainly about contamination and protection methods is obvious. Considering pharmacists’ responsibilities and importance not only for the patient but also for the public and World health, it is important and necessary that pharmacists educate patients about infectious diseases.
References/Acknowledgments
(1) Mercer A. Protection against severe infectious disease in the past. Pathogens and Global Health. 2021;115(3),151–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/20477724.2021.1878443
(2) Ener D, Çetinkaya F. A scale development and validation study: communicable diseases risk awareness and protection scale. J Ist Faculty Med. 2022;85(2):258–269. https://doi.org/10.26650/iuitfd.973903