Community pharmacists’ knowledge, perceptions, and practices about topical corticosteroid counseling: A real-world cross-sectional survey and focus group discussions in Korea

Topical corticosteroids (TCs) are widely used to treat dermatological conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It can be a safe and effective treatment when used appropriately. However, misguided information and corticosteroid phobia appear to contribute to inadequate adherence to therapy, leading t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-07, Vol.15 (7), p.e0236797-e0236797
Main Authors: Kang, Min Jung, Park, Ji Hyun, Park, Sunny, Kim, Nam Gyu, Kim, Eun Young, Yu, Yun Mi, Kim, Do Young, Lee, Ju-Yeun, Shin, Wan Gyoon, Choi, Soo An, Lu, Kevin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beliefs, opinions and attitudes
Corticoids
Corticosteroid drugs
Corticosteroids
Counseling
Cross-sectional studies
Dermatology
Dosage and administration
Drug stores
Eczema
Focus groups
Health counseling
Hospitals
Internal medicine
Knowledge
Likert scale
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Patients
People and Places
Perception
Perceptions
Pharmaceutical sciences
Pharmacists
Polls & surveys
Practice
Prescriptions
Psoriasis
Qualitative research
Questionnaires
Regression analysis
Research and Analysis Methods
Rural areas
Skin diseases
Studies
Topical drugs
Training
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Summary:Topical corticosteroids (TCs) are widely used to treat dermatological conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It can be a safe and effective treatment when used appropriately. However, misguided information and corticosteroid phobia appear to contribute to inadequate adherence to therapy, leading to unsatisfactory treatment outcomes. Therefore, community pharmacists (CPs) are in a prime position to inform patients about the appropriate use of medicine. The aim of this study was to examine how the knowledge and perceptions of CPs, as well as other factors, associate CPs' patient counseling practice around the use of TCs. A structured, validated questionnaire was distributed to CPs in the Republic of Korea, and additional focus group discussions were implemented to obtain a deeper understanding of the survey findings. We analyzed the survey results by applying a modified knowledge-perception-practice model. In addition, we used path analysis to validate the model and assessed how knowledge level and perceptions of barriers affect CPs' counseling behavior. We ran a multiple regression to identify factors that associate CPs' practice levels. A total of 1018 surveys were analyzed. In general, respondents had sufficient knowledge to provide appropriate patient counseling on TC use. An increase in knowledge level positively associated the quality of practice, and more knowledge increased the perception of barriers that negatively associated patient counseling. Location in rural areas and pharmacists' perception of counseling barriers negatively associated the quality of practice. A higher level of knowledge, training in ADEs, higher proportion of OTC TC sales, and increased time for counseling positively associated the quality of practice. Therefore, minimizing barriers such as negative perceptions is very important in facilitating CPs' counseling practice around TC use.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0236797