Libyan community pharmacists' knowledge, attitude, and practice concerning non-prescription dispensing of antibiotics

Abstract

Antibiotics are prescription only medications, but their dispensing as over the counter drugs constitutes one of the main causes of antibiotic resistance.  Antibiotic resistance threatens the life of people around the world, as indicated by world and Health Organization. Therefore, a global effort and collaboration are required to decrease and control the development and spread of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of community pharmacists regarding dispensing of antibiotics without prescription (DAWP) in Libya. Self- administered questionnaire has been created with a cross sectional design and statistical package for social sciences(SPSS) version 27.0 was used for descriptive statistics analysis. The vast majority of respondents were female (82.2%) and (79.4%) of respondents were less than 30 years old. About 43% of community pharmacists reported that they dispense antibiotics without prescription. Feeling competent to dispense antibiotics as over the counter drug was the most common reason for antibiotic dispensing without prescription.  Amoxicillin, Azithromycin and Metronidazole were the most commonly dispensed antibiotics without a prescription respectively. In summary, dispensing antibiotics without a prescription is widespread in Libya, especially When patient asks for a particular antibiotic.