The Prevalence, Attitude and Awareness of Herbal Medicine Products Use Among Pharmacy Practitioner in Jordan

Background: There has been a universal increase in the use of herbal medicine products (HMPs). Herbal medicine considered to be the oldest form of healing and treating different diseases. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence, attitude of HMPs use and awareness among pharmaceutical practitioner in Jordan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 230 Jordanian pharmacy practitioner (pharmacist and pharmacy assistant), within 90 different private pharmacies in different cities of Jordan during the period of 6 months in the mid of 2018. The survey questionnaire included: the socio-demographic characteristics of participants, the source of information of the use of the HMPs, the attitude towards the use and safety of the HMPs and their combination with conventional drugs. Results: Out of 230 pharmacy practitioners interviewed in this study, the utilization rate of the HMPs use was just 41.7%. A large number of practitioners (58.3%) preferred conventional medicine because they believed that conventional medicine had better efficacy and better feedback than herbal products. A significant difference between pharmacist participants knowledge and work experience for more than 7 years (p-value=0.002). Majority of the participants (88.9%) reported that they had a narrow background about the safety of these products and hadn’t satisfied information regarding herb-drug interaction. Conclusion: This study counteracts other studies reported in Jordan, the usage of herbal medicine products among pharmacy practitioners isn’t prevalent and isn’t disseminated. They had fair information’s about the usage of the herbal products especially between the pharmacist, but they were less awareness about side effects and interactions of these products. It is crucial to refresh pharmacy practitioner knowledge periodically and enhance their information by arranging different programs focused on the rational use of these products, side effects and interactions by Jordanian pharmacist association, which had a potential role in this field. In addition, they must use reliable sources for information on herbal products in order to provide desired pharmaceutical care