Knowledge and practice of community pharmacists toward dispensing of cough medications for children Khartoum State: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Cough is one of the common symptoms that alert patients to seek medical attention from physicians, which may lead to an increase in the cost of health-care services. The pharmacist is one of the medical professionals to whom parents can go for consultation and request cough medications for their children. The study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of community pharmacists toward dispensing of cough medication for children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 325 community pharmacists using a pretested, standardized questionnaire. A stratified random sampling method was used to select the participants. The knowledge and practice were assessed, and then the associations between knowledge and practice with different demographic variables were assessed using Chi-square test and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. RESULTS: Of 325 participants, the majority of them were females (74.2%) with B. Pharm (73.5%) and experienced CONCLUSION: More than half of the participants showed moderate knowledge and practice toward dispensing of cough medication in children, no significant association between knowledge and demographic variables, but practice showed a significant association with participants' qualifications.