Factors Relating to Community Pharmacists’ Opinions Toward Roles for Screening and Referral of Suspected Tuberculosis Patients
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Abstract
This study aimed to determine the factors relating to community pharmacists’ opinions toward their roles for screening and referral of suspected tuberculosis patients. The study population consisted of 807 pharmacists in qualified drugstores around Thailand. Data were collected using a mailed questionnaire and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test. Results showed that the response rate was 42.37%. The respondents were female (64.33%) with an average age of 37.04 years old and had an average working experience at drugstore of 9.66 years. Data from all respondents found that most of the respondents were in agreement with the roles of community pharmacist for screening and referral of suspected tuberculosis patients (83.34%) and were willing to participate in the screening and referral program (67.7%). Opinion on the referral procedure was that suspected TB patients should visit government hospital themselves using a referral document provided by the community pharmacist (47.1%). Regarding the association between factors and opinion, results found that opinions toward their roles for screening and referral of suspected tuberculosis patients were statistically significant associated with age (p=0.02), working experience at a drugstore(p=0.006), length of time the drugstore has been operating (p=0.003), time of being a qualified drugstore (p=0.004), recognition of TB situation (p=0.001), recognition of National TB guidelines (p<0.05), having a disease screening service (p=0.041), having a referral service (p=0.005), and having a patient profile (p=0.004). The results indicate that the development of a screening and referral program for suspected tuberculosis patients in qualified drugstores might be an essential strategy for TB control in Thailand
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