Assessment of the knowledge and attitude of dispensers in community pharmacy in the management of asthma in Kawempe division, Kampala.

Abstract

WHO asthma epidemiology states that approximately 334 million people currently suffer from Asthma, and 250,000 deaths are attributed to this disease each year with a projected increase of about 100 million people suffering from asthma by 2025. This implies that there is increase in prevalence of asthmatic attacks approximating to 50% per decade. In Uganda, the prevalence of this disease is 11.02% with urban areas having a higher prevalence (12.99%) than rural areas (8.86%) (Kirenga et al., 2019). According to the data published by WHO in 2020, asthma deaths were 1,745 (0.84% of total asthma deaths in the world) at a rate of 11.28 per 100,000 of population ranking it 56 in the whole world. Majority of the cases have been attributed to poor self-management by the asthmatic patients due to negative attitude in the community. It is worthy to note that little knowledge about the disease in the population has posed challenges in both diagnosis and management of this disease. This also has let to poor adherence to medication and self-care behaviors of managing the disease. Community pharmacies are the first access point of health care and advisory services by majority of the asthmatic patients. This study and research report informs the relationship between poor patient asthma management and the knowledge and attitude of dispensers in managing the disease.