Background: Drug information resources include discovering, utilizing, and managing medication usage information
Objective: This research examines the characteristics of drug information utilization for practicing pharmacists in Baghdad, Iraq, and identifies the main barriers that impede their ability to use it.
Methods: The study included 100 community pharmacists and was designed as a cross-sectional observational study. A structured questionnaire was designed to address the drug information resources in a community pharmacy setting.
Results: Overall, prescriptions and over-the-counter medication prescriptions are similar in their dispensation pattern, with 56 to 60% of the dispensations having less than 40 prescriptions daily, followed by 41 – 60 dispensations daily. Regarding patients asking for information about OTC medications, 51% of the pharmacists indicated that 10 – 25 % of their patients asked about OTC medication information. In comparison, 37% indicated that less than 10 % of patients asked about OTC medication information. Regarding patients who ask for general information, 37% of them indicate that 10 – 25% of their patients asked about general information. In comparison, 21% of the pharmacists indicate that more than 50% of their patients asked about general information.
Conclusions: Iraqi community pharmacists highly adopt electronic drug information resources, and the frequency of drug information resources was independent of pharmacist age, pharmacist degree, work settings, and other pharmacist-related variables.