Role of Clinical Pharmacists in Unraveling the Myths Related to Pharmacological Care in General Population

Abstract

Myths related to health are common and arise for a variety of reasons. When it comes to health it is best to rely on the information based on facts. Treatment becomes more difficult if myths overcome the therapeutic instructions, which ultimately leads to deterioration of the health care services. The main objective of the study was to find out the attitude of the general community on myths of health care management, to give pharmaceutical counseling to clear myths, and to re-evaluate the attitude of community on their past myths. A community based survey was conducted on 200 study subjects in the Mangalore region for a duration of 6 months was conducted as per the Ethics Committee of Srinivas Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre. The subjects included in the study were adults above 18 years of age, who can understand English/Malayalam. Data were analysed with the help of excel 17 and SPSS 20. While analyzing the data from a total of 200 subjects, it was observed that 92(46%) subjects were male and 108(54%) were female. The subjects in the present study were not aware or doesn't have adequate knowledge regarding the myths and facts related to health care. The study found that 71-80% of subjects were following the myths and was not aware of the fact. And after giving the counselling the study exhibited that majority of our subjects started to unfollow the misconceptions. Our study speculate the role of the pharmacist to rule out the myths regarding health care and lifestyle by giving counselling to the community and after reassessing, we could find a change in people's attitudes towards the myths. Through our counselling, we are able to bring awareness among common people about drug administration so we are able to prevent the risk that may occur due to misconceptions among common people. Thus this study analyses the effectiveness of clinical pharmacists in giving the perception regarding myths and can decrease the burden of the other health care professionals.