Assessment of Knowledge towards Alzheimer's Disease among the Community Pharmacists of North Karnataka: A Survey Based Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a leading cause of dementia in the world which is characterized by progressive cognitive decline. The increasing number of cases of Alzheimer's disease has increased the necessity of healthcare professionals trained in management of Alzheimer's disease. It has also become necessary to include community pharmacist into AD management team as they can counsel the patients and family members, ensure medication adherence, lookout for drug related problems etc., which in turn improves the quality of care provided to patients. For this reason, it has become necessary to assess the level of knowledge and thus provide relevant training to the community pharmacist regarding Alzheimer's disease. The current cross-sectional observational study was carried out with the aim of assessing the level of knowledge towards Alzheimer's disease among the community pharmacists of North Karnataka. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire which was circulated via Google forms and consists of two sections namely the demographic details of the participants and questions from the validated ADKS (Alzheimer's disease Knowledge Scale) scale. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was used for analysis of the data. Results: The mean ADKS score of the 100 community pharmacists who participated in the study was found to be 15.03 +/- 3.66 SD. The difference in mean ADKS score was more prominent among participants with different educational qualification degrees, between different age groups and also between participants from urban and rural settings. Conclusion: The knowledge of community pharmacists can be improved by conducting training sessions, seminars, and workshops regarding AD at regular time intervals.