Awareness of Community Pharmacists towards Medication Safety and Use During Pregnancy in Najran, Southern Region of Saudi Arabia

The aim of present study was to assess the knowledge of community pharmacists about the medication safety during pregnancy and lactation. A cross-sectional study was carried out among community pharmacists in Najran region, Saudi Arabia. The response from each participant was scored for knowledge related questions and subjected for statistical analysis. A total of 80 responses were obtained (response rate 75%); half of the participants were found to be in the age group of 22 to 35 years old, had experience between 5-10 years (50%), holding bachelor's degree (96%), and about 92.5% of participants indicated that they have pregnancy consultation cases and most of them were related to safety of medications during pregnancy. The mean score was 26.9 and median score was 45. There is no significant difference among different age groups and year of experience in knowledge score. Whereas, significant difference was found with country of graduation with p value = 0.0337. We conclude that most of the participants have inadequate knowledge regarding use of drugs during pregnancy and overestimated the risk associated with medication use during pregnancy and lactation.