Knowledge, attitude, and practice of community pharmacists toward tablet splitting and crushing at omdurman locality: A cross-sectional study

Background: The splitting or crushing of tablets has many advantages, such as dose flexibility, cost reduction, and ease of swallowing. Despite these benefits, there are many drawbacks to this practice. Pharmacists should be able to make decisions and counsel patients concerning these techniques. Our study aimed to evaluate their knowledge, attitude, and practice about tablet splitting and crushing. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out among 150 community pharmacists using a validated self-administered questionnaire. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the participants. The knowledge, attitude, and practice were evaluated. Associations between the variables were tested using the Chi-square method. Results: Out of 147 participants, 67.1% were females. The majority of subjects were between 20 and 30 years of age. About 48% of respondents scored a fair knowledge level and 23% of them were knowledgeable of the subject matter. Furthermore, 51% of pharmacists showed good attitudes, as they do not usually recommend the splitting and crushing of tablet dosage. Moreover, more than half of the participants used alternative formulations for patients who were unable to swallow. Nearly 65% of participants did not encourage tablet splitting to help patients to save money. Almost 80% of them declared that they never advised a patient to split or crush enteric-coated or sustained-release tablets. Moreover, a significant association was found between participants' knowledge and their professional experience. On the other hand, the participants' attitude was significantly associated with their age and training levels. Conclusion: The study showed variable knowledge levels among participants. Nearly 51% of the participating pharmacists showed good attitudes regarding the study subject. Experience, age, and training have a positive effect on the knowledge and attitude of participants.