Pharmacists Perceptions of the Development of Herbal Medicines in Iran

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Pharmacists Perceptions of the Development of
Herbal Medicines in Iran Asghari G. Faculty
of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Isfahan
University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan,
I.R.Iran
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• Objectives
• Identify pharmacists overall assessments of the
  WHO-TRM Strategy components influencing the
  development of herbal medicine market in Iran.
• In Iran, although the sale of herbal medicine is
  growing, at present its share in the drug market
  is lt5.

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Methodselements assessed

• Access affordibility, supply, distrubution,
  market expansion, health insurance coverage,
  price
• Rational use provider training, consumer
  information, public information, commercial
  advertizing, student education
• Safety, efficacy, quailty pharmacovigilance,
  packeging and lebelling, quality assurance,
  clinical trial, new dosage form
• Regulation registration , integration to NHS,
  legal consideration, licensing, auditing

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Questionnaire used

• The 20 questions consisted of 5 items addressing
  safety, efficacy, and quality of herbal
  medicines, 5 items about the rational use, 5
  items about the access to herbal medicines, and 5
  items about regulation.
• A five point Likert rating scale was used for
  the final 20-item with choices strongly agree,
  agree, somewhat agree, disagree, and strongly
  disagree.

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Subjects

• 72 community retail pharmacists practicing in
  Isfahan city in private pharmacy were participate
  to complete the survey. Data were collected by
  self-administered questionnaire.
• After their continuing education course,
  pharmacists were asked to complete a written
  survey evaluating elements that can influence the
  development of herbal medicine in Iran .

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This is where a large graphic or chart can go.
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Results

• In the safety, efficacy and quality section,
  there were significant differences between
  efficacy and others. The results showed that
  pharmacists believe poor efficacy in herbal
  product negatively influence their market.
• There was a significant difference in access
  section between cost and availability.
• The results demonstrated that the pharmacist
  perceptions of development of herbal medicines
  vary from access and regulation items to safety,
  efficacy, quality and rational use items.

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Conclusion

• Since this data were collected to assess the
  perception of specific city pharmacist, they may
  not necessarily show the reality and may not
  nationally applicable or acceptable.
• Iran health system needs to evaluate their herbal
  medicine market by various methods in order to
  promote their herbal medicine market to meet
  health care demands.

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Challenging methodological issues

• Reliability and validity in the collection of
  data
• pretest group, clarity, wording, representative
• use of questionnaires in multi cultural society,
  (questions of quality, rational use, safety are
  strongly determined by the cultural context.)

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• Complexity of the herbal medicines use
• Influence of social factors, cultural factors,
  definition of health ( herbal medicine is the
  best solution)
• Limitation what people think or what they are
  willing to report is not necessarily the same as
  what actually happens.

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Question should be included in future research

• Public Demand
• Marketing mechanisms
• Level and distribution of wealth in the country
• Affordability of professional care
• Affordability of traditional herbal materials
• Free access to formal medical care

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• Number of pharmacies
• number of traditional healer
• availability of professional care
• Availability of drug
• Availability of traditional market

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Behavioral factors

• pharmacist dispensing behavior
• patient compliance
• illness behavior
• attitude of health professionals
• attitude to health
• Cultural values