Assessing the knowledge, attitude and perception about potentially inappropriate medications among community pharmacists in Kedah, Malaysia

Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) among geriatric are detrimental to both clinical outcomes and health care costs. Knowledge of PIMs among community pharmacists plays vital role in minimizing the inappropriate prescribing. Beers Criteria is commonly used guidelines that lists specific PIMs, where community pharmacists would benefit from knowledge of Beers Criteria in detecting PIMs in primary care. This study therefore investigates the knowledge, attitude and perception of PIMs among community pharmacists in Kedah, Malaysia. This is a prospective, cross-sectional study. The knowledge of PIMs; perception regarding PIMs; awareness of Beers Criteria; and perception of educational needs to enhance community pharmacists’ knowledge about PIMs was assessed by using 5‐point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used to analyse the data. In this study a total of 107 community pharmacists participated. The respondents demonstrated a higher-level knowledge of PIMs. All of the respondents agreed inappropriate medications among geriatric will cause increased in healthcare utilization, health complications and hospitalization. The respondents demonstrated poor awareness of Beers Criteria. Majority respondents were uncertain that Omeprazole is the most common Beers medication prescribed in healthcare system. Majority of respondents agreed incorporation of geriatric pharmacotherapy education as a core subject or elective subject and postgraduate education in geriatric pharmacotherapy can help to enhance community pharmacists’ knowledge about PIMs among elderly patients. The community pharmacists in Kedah demonstrated high knowledge level of PIMs but poor awareness of the Beers Criteria. Thus, there is a need to increase the awareness and use of Beers Criteria among community pharmacists.