Abstract:

Background: Analgesics, commonly known as painkillers, are substances which work in various ways to relieve different types of pain experienced in the body. Common analgesics available in community pharmacies is Paracetamol and NSAIDs, while they are reported to cause adverse effects when used inappropriate.

Methodology: Cross sectional community pharmacies-based study was conducted in Nyamagana, Mwanza from November 2020 to September 2021. A total of 78 dispensers were recruited in the study and interviewed using structured questionnaire, data obtained were entered into excel for screening and transferred to SPSS 20 for analysis.

Results: A total of 78 dispensers in community pharmacy recruited where by majority of them were pharmaceutical technician (44.9%). The majority of dispensers (55%) had low performance in screening for potential risks factors. Most dispensers (62%) had poor practice in giving counselling information to patient to prevent adverse effects.

Conclusion: Screening for risk factors and counselling information for patients using common analgesics was not universal practice. Thus, patients may be at risk of adverse effects from drugs obtained from pharmacies and they are not fully counselled to protect them. Greater attention should be paid in provision of safety counselling information about common analgesics by dispensers to the patients.