The pharmacist’s role in managing and ameliorating childhood’s asthma care: a descriptive and transversal study about 104 pharmacists in the city of Rabat in Morocco

Abstract

This work aims at enhancing the management of childhood asthma, with a focus on pharmacists in particular, by evaluating their knowledge of childhood asthma and assessing their attitude while they are providing asthma medicines. Consequently, it will look at the necessity of introducing training days about childhood asthma for pharmacists. This is a transversal and descriptive study which lingered from August to October 2015. Data has been collected using a questionnaire that was self-administered to every surveyed pharmacist in the city of Rabat. The 104 pharmacists who replied to the questionnaire have an average general understanding about asthma and its treatment. Only a quarter of them managed an asthma crisis in their pharmacy before directing the child to the emergency. 50% of them do not know the difference between the basic asthma therapy and the asthma attack therapy. However, all of them recommended the parents to see a physician regarding their child’s asthma. 75% advise the systematic use of an asthma spacer with the inhaler. 87.5% of them give advice to parents regarding the good measures for environmental control, and 98% estimate that the therapeutic education is important in childhood asthma management. 88.5% among them are interested in training days about childhood asthma.This study shows the necessity of further pharmacists’ education about asthma and its management.