METHODS:

The study was conducted in Selangor, one of the most prosperous states in Malaysia. Selangor has a population of about 3.75 million, and the total number of registered community pharmacies in Selangor is 297. A cross-sectional study was conducted for the period of 2 months, using a self-administered, pre-tested questionnaire among randomly selected community pharmacist in Selangor, Malaysia.

RESULTS:

A total of 225 participants were contacted to achieve a required sample size of 188 (response rate = 83.5%). The Majority of the participants strongly agreed/agreed that antimicrobial stewardship program is essential to improve patient care (96.8%). However, more than half of the pharmacists were neutral in their opinion about the incorporation of antimicrobial stewardship programs in community pharmacies (54.2%). Though collaboration was often done by the pharmacists with other health professionals over the use of antibiotics (55.3%), a significant proportion of the participants (54.2%) rarely/occasionally participate in antimicrobial awareness campaigns. Qualification of the participants was significantly associated with the perceptions and practices of the respondents (p<0.05) while the experience was the determining factor with respect to the perceptions of participants towards antimicrobial stewardship (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS:

The perceptions and practices of community pharmacists were positive towards antimicrobial stewardship. Further studies are warranted to validate these results by including community pharmacists from other states of Malaysia.