Knowledge of pharmacists on proper use of oral contraceptive pills and missed dose instructions in United Arab Emirates

Purpose: To assess the knowledge of community pharmacists and senior pharmacy students in United Arab Emirates (UAE) about the proper use of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) and to investigate factors associated with their knowledge.Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a validated self-administered questionnaire to community pharmacists and senior pharmacy students in UAE. The survey contained 22 questions divided into 3 parts: a) demographic information, b) OCPs general knowledge, c) OCPs proper use and missed dose instructions.Results: Community pharmacists had significantly higher knowledge scores than senior pharmacy students (26 vs 16.6 %; p = 0.032). Pharmacists with 10 - 20 years of experience had significantly lower knowledge scores than pharmacists with < 10 years of experience (p < 0.05). Conversely, gender, marital status and previous education on OCPs were not associated with knowledge score (p > 0.05).Conclusion: Participants had poor knowledge of proper use and missed dose instructions along with several misconceptions of OCPs. This can be enhanced by encouraging pharmacists to enroll in continuous educations activities that provide updated information about OCPs. Additionally, inclusion of an intensive elective course on OCPs in undergraduate pharmacy curricula may be helpful.Keywords: Oral contraceptives, Pharmacists, Pharmacy students, Counselling skills, misconceptions