STM Article Repository

Background: Digital health solutions have seen a remarkable increase in recent years as they enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare system. Digital health tools have transformed how patients interact with healthcare. Digital health tools help in diagnosis, measuring of vitals on daily and regular basis, and in prevention of diseases. Studies show a gap between the design of these tools and the needs of the patients they serve. The study aimed to identify areas where improvements are needed for digital health skills.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess community pharmacist's knowledge and attitudes toward integration of digital health tools (e.g. mobile apps, telehealth) into their practice. To observe association between participants demographics/professional variables and knowledge concerning digital health tools.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted by research students of a private medical college in Lahore a city of Punjab, Pakistan. Data was collected on data collection form after getting consent from the participants. All those community pharmacists who gave consent and have work experience of more than one year were included in study and those who have work experience less than one year were excluded from study. Validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was collected from August 30,2024 to September 6, 2024. After inclusion & exclusion criteria sample size was remained to 70. For analysis of collected data SPSS 26th version was used. For the purpose of summarizing the data standard deviation and mean were employed. Evaluation of categorical data was carried out either by using chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. For measuring of effect size Cramer’s V or Phi (φ) was used. Less than 0.05 of P-value was considered significant.

Results: 51.4% of participants were females but males have more adequate knowledge than females. The mean age of all participants calculated was 27.41±4.03. 62.6% participants were from urban areas. 85.7% of participants have done post-graduation. 70% of participants have work experience of less than 2 years and only 12.9% have participated in courses related to digital health tools. Only 30%of participants were from chain pharmacies while rest of them were from independent pharmacies. A statistically non-significant was observed between participants knowledge and their qualification as p-value was 1. Additionally, non-significance was observed between all demographics and knowledge of participants as none have p-value less than 0.05. Regarding attitude of variables, no statistically significant difference was observed between score of males which is 32.794±5.156 and females 32.69±5. 538 in present study with p-value of 0.938. Similarly, no significant difference was found between score of chain and independent community pharmacists which is 33.30 and 32.59 respectively with p-value 0.692.

Conclusion: The current study concluded that there was no significant association between participants demographics/professional variables and knowledge concerning digital health tools. However, male pharmacists and those pharmacists working in chain pharmacies have more knowledge but this impact was not justified by p-values. Similarly, those participants who have done some certifications 55.6% out of them has adequate knowledge but still association was non-significant as p-value was 0.116. Regarding attitude of participants, no statistically significant difference was observed between score of attitude variables and none of them have significant p-value as well.