Abstract:

Introduction: Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is the change in a drug’s effect on the body when the drug is taken with a second drug. DDI may occur due to poly pharmacy and self-medication. DDI may cause health problem range from mild to severe. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge of accredited drug dispensing outlet (ADDO) shop dispensers toward selected DDI and determine the reference sources of DDI.

Methodology: The study was cross sectional study and questionnaire was used to collect data from 134 ADDO shop dispensers to assess their knowledge about selected DDI. The questionnaire used consisting of ten questions used to measure to assess the knowledge. In each ward seven ADDO shop was surveyed to make total of 134 ADDO shop dispensers in 18 wards located in the Nyamagana district.

Results: 134 of ADDO shop dispensers were participated in the study. Female 56.0% male was 44.0% and the mean age of participants was 23.2 ± 2.8 age. The results show that 30.6% of ADDO shop dispensers have knowledge about interaction of tetracycline and magnesium trisilicate where 18.7% of ADDO shop dispensers have knowledge about interactions of ciprofloxacin and aluminum-calcium ant-acid. Also 35.8% of ADDO shop dispensers use the train provided by ADDO course as source of identifying DDI, 22.0% uses books as source of references and only 1.5% of ADDO shop dispensers uses internet to identifying DDI.

Conclusion: From this study it shows ADDO shop dispensers are not aware about these selected DDI however have knowledge on pharmacological uses of these drugs. So much efforts are required to provide alternative methods for identifying DDI such as books, internet, computerized system and leaflets.