Knowledge, attitudes and participation of community pharmacists in Lagos State, Nigeria towards primary health care (PHC)

The general objective of this study was to evaluate community pharmacists’ participation in primary health care as well as to assess community pharmacists’ knowledge of primary health care and determine their level of participation in health promotion, disease prevention and curative primary health care activities in Lagos, Nigera. A total of 120 community pharmacists were used for this study. Data was collected through the use of a self completion questionnaire given to community pharmacists in their premises and collected on the spot or after some time. Analysis was done through the use of Microsoft SPSS Version 10. This study revealed that most of the community pharmacists are aware of primary health care (95.8%), even though they do not know much of its history (26.6%). Participation in the different components of primary health care i.e. in health promotion, disease prevention and in curative primary health care services was very high. However, participation in immunization services was very low (14.1%) and many of them agreed that their participation in PHC could further be improved through continuous education and training in primary health care programmes (91.6%). Community pharmacists participate actively in primary health care activities in Lagos State, Nigeria. A large number of community pharmacists are aware of primary health care and have undergone training in primary health care activities mostly at the undergraduate level, though only a few have undergone refresher course in primary health care. The community pharmacists participate actively in health promotion mostly in the provision of drug information services, tobacco/alcohol cessation services as well as other health promotion services as well as in disease prevention activities. The community pharmacists also participate actively in disease treatment as a first contact health care provider.   Key words: Community pharmacy, primary health care, community pharmacists, participation.