Malta is an independent country with a total population of around 414 000 and 209

community pharmacies; Malta has a pharmacy to population ratio of approximately 1:1980. All
prescription-only and nonprescription medicines can only be purchased from a community
pharmacy. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of Maltese consumers of the
community pharmacist and the level of satisfaction with current pharmacy services offered from
Maltese community pharmacies.
Some 48% of consumers visited the community pharmacy monthly or less frequently, 32%
visited two to three times a month, 14% went weekly and only 6% visited the pharmacy more
than once a week. Most consumers (67%) frequently visited the same community pharmacy, 22%
always visited the same community pharmacy and 11% rarely visited the same community
pharmacy.
The two most common reasons for visiting a community pharmacy were to purchase
medicines prescribed by a physician (90%) and to purchase non-prescription medicines (65%).
Other reasons included: to purchase cosmetics and toiletries (40%), to ask the pharmacist for
advice (25%) and to purchase baby products (5%).
Most consumers chose to visit a particular community pharmacy as it was close to their
home or work place (80%), followed by 44% who sought pharmacist sympathy and friendliness
when choosing a community pharmacy. Other determining factors included: the availability of a
wide range of products (38%), provision of a quick and efficient service (29%), pharmacy
loyalty (18%) and the layout and appearance of the pharmacy (17%).
The majority of consumers had a very good perception of the community pharmacist and
were very or fairly satisfied with various pharmacist characteristics, namely pharmacist
efficiency when dealing with their requests (95%), provision of instructions on how to take
medications (94%), language used by the pharmacist (93%), discretion (91%), professional
pharmacistconsumer relationship (90%), provision of explanations of how medications work
(86%), pharmacist knowledge and ability to answer questions (81%) and pharmacist interest in
their health (77%). The consumers were least satisfied with the privacy in the pharmacy (69%)
and the amount of time the pharmacist spends with them (73%).
The majority of the consumers (56%) regarded pharmacists as both business people and
healthcare professionals; 35% considered pharmacists to be primarily healthcare professionals
and 9% perceived them as primarily business-oriented people. When asked about payment for
community pharmacists services, the majority of the consumers were not willing to pay for
advice given when purchasing a non-prescription product (80%), for advice given when
purchasing a prescription product (83%) and for general advice given about any presented
complaints (72%).
The majority of the consumers (75%) confirmed that they would rely on the community
pharmacists choice when purchasing a non-prescription medication. When looking for health
advice, only 11% of the consumers would first consult the community pharmacist, with 76% first
consulting the physician. Other sources of advice were from a family member or friend (10%)
and the internet (4%). The majority of the consumers (80%) would seek advice from a
community pharmacist when their condition was not serious enough to visit a physician, 15%
would ask the community pharmacist for advice when they had no time to wait for a physicians
appointment, 13% found it easier to talk to a community pharmacist and 6% of the consumers
opted for the community pharmacists advice since no fee is charged. Only 13% of consumers
would never ask a community pharmacist for advice.
Community pharmacists need information about their customers needs, opinions and
perceptions of themselves and their services, in order to serve them better. This study
investigated the customers perceptions of community pharmacies and pharmacists in Harare,
Zimbabwe.
A total of 67 consumers participated in the study for a 95.7 % response rate. Thirty-six
(53.7 %) respondents were female (Table 1) while thirty-nine (58.2 %) respondents had health
insurance cover (medical aid). The respondents mean age was 34 years. Twenty-nine consumers
(43.3 %) visited the pharmacy less than once a month while 41.8 % reported visiting the
pharmacy once a month. Five (7.5 %) consumers visited the pharmacy more than once a week.
Similarly, 5 (7.5 %) consumers visited the pharmacy once a week. Respondents aged 40 years
and over visited the pharmacy more frequently than those aged less than 40 years (p = 0.001).
Female clients visited community pharmacies more frequently than male ones (p = 0.002). There
was no significant difference in the frequency of visits between those people who were on
medical aid and those who were not (p = 0.379).
Majority of respondents (91.0 %) visited the pharmacy mainly to purchase medicines
recommended by their doctor. More female customers visited the pharmacy to ask pharmacists
for advice compared to male customers (p = 0.021). While more female respondents reported
going to a community pharmacy primarily to purchase over the counter medicines than male
respondents (p = 0.045). In addition, more females reported that they went to a pharmacy
primarily to buy cosmetics, toiletries, baby foods and baby products (p = 0.026).
Most of the respondents (61.2 %) stated that they were not loyal to any particular
pharmacy and the rest stated that they were loyal (38.8 %). Female consumers were significantly
more loyal to a particular pharmacy than male ones (p = 0.035). Loyalty to a particular pharmacy
also increased with age (p < 0.05).
The main reason given for visiting a particular pharmacy was convenience (62.9 %). This
included the pharmacy being close to home, to work or to the doctors clinic. 27% chose to
patronize a pharmacy because of keen interest taken by and good advice given by the pharmacist.
Respondents who were 40 years or older were more likely to visit a particular pharmacy because
of this reason (p = 0.034) than the rest of the respondents. There was no significant difference in
the reasons given by male and female for choosing a particular pharmacy (p > 0.05).
When faced with a health problem, a majority of respondents (71.6 %) reported that they
first approached a doctor. Only 19 %, 6 % and 3 % reported first visiting the pharmacist,
traditional healer and others, respectively. Most respondents (53.7 %) perceived community
pharmacists as health professionals who have a good balance between health and business
matters. Consumers perception of pharmacists did not differ significantly by gender or
educational level (p > 0.05).
Most respondents (67.2 %) reported feeling at ease about asking the pharmacist for
advice. Respondents (65.7 %) also agreed that pharmacists supply relevant information about
drugs only if they ask. There were no significant differences in consumers view of community
pharmacist provision of advice and support by gender or education level (p > 0.05). Nearly one
out of every two consumers (49.3 %) felt that pharmacists allowed them enough time to fully
discuss their problems and that they listened well. There were no significant differences in
consumers views of community pharmacists handling of consultations and response to
problems by gender or educational level (p > 0.05).
In this day and age, pharmacists play an essential role in educating patients regarding
drug therapy as patients become increasingly responsible for their own health care. Community
pharmacists are the health care. The aim of this study is to examine the public's awareness about
community pharmacy and pharmacists, in a selected subset of the Malaysian population.
There were 561 respondents, who were mainly Malaysians (97.5%). The ethnic
representation was 59% Malays, 29% Chinese and 9% Indians. The majority (61.5%) of the
respondents were between 18 - 25 years old with 18.2% and 17.1% aged between 26 - 35 years
and 36 - 50 years respectively. In terms of gender distribution, 41% of the respondents were male.
The composition of the respondents include undergraduates (55.1%), professionals (16.6%), non-
professionals (20.3%), school-going students (3.7%), postgraduate students (2.3%), housewives
(1.1%) and pensioners (0.9%). The majority (75%) of respondents lived in urban areas.
The respondents' scores ranged between 3 to 21 out of a possible maximum of 24. The
majority of the respondents obtained scores in the "fair" (48%) and "good" (39.6%) categories.
The mean score was 13.7 and the mode was 14 (both in the "fair" category). The figure reflects
an almost normal distribution. The generally fair scores achieved by the respondents were not
unexpected with almost three-quarters (74%) of them either undertaking or had attained a tertiary
level of education. There were only four respondents who obtained excellent scores: two were
undergraduates, one was a housewife while the other was a sales executive. Surprisingly, no
professional achieved an "excellent" score. The scores for the different occupations, genders and
ethnic groups were not significantly different based on the student's t-test (p>0.05).
The respondents were assessed on their level of awareness of the term "Pharmacist" as
well as the nature of work and workplace of a pharmacist. Most respondents (93.6%) had heard
of the term "pharmacist" while 89.7% and 88.2% respectively, thought they knew what the
pharmacist did and where the pharmacist worked. However, the following question, which
required the respondents to choose the workplace of the pharmacist, disproved the above notion.
While most respondents associated the pharmacist with the retail sector, hospitals, academia and
factories, a shocking 77.4% associated pharmacists with doctors' clinics. Obviously, the
respondents had heard of the term "pharmacist"; however, their awareness of a pharmacist's role
in the community was not completely accurate. The association with working in a doctor's clinic
suggested confusion between the roles of dispensers and pharmacists. Farms were also
associated with pharmacists, possibly due to the perceived similarity between the words
"pharmacy" and "farm". Most of the study population (91.1%) associated pharmacists with the
community or retail pharmacies and less with hospitals, factories and pharmaceutical trading
houses. This confirms that community pharmacists have a higher visibility and hence would be
in a better position to disseminate information and influence public opinion on pharmacy.
In this survey, quite a large proportion of the people interviewed (77.2%) identified the
university as a place of work for pharmacists. This was not surprising since this study was
conducted on university grounds during the convocation festival. This percentage would,
however, be expected to be smaller if the study was conducted in the general population.
The familiarity of the respondents with the pharmacy and sinseh shop was established
before the respondents were asked questions on their purchasing patterns at these two places. It
was found that 88.4% of the respondents had visited a pharmacy before as compared to a sinseh
shop (67.4%).

The respondents were interviewed on their preferred places for purchasing groceries,
toiletries, health supplements, woundcare products, crude herbs, over-the-counter (OTC)
medicines and prescription drugs, with more than one response permitted for these questions. It
was seen that a pharmacy was generally associated with multivitamins (89.9%), woundcare
products (83.2%) and prescription drugs (79.7%), as displayed in Figure 3. The majority of the
respondents (55.4%) preferred to buy OTC medicines from places other than the pharmacy and
the sinseh shop. Could price and accessibility be a contributing factor? In comparison, a public
opinion survey of community pharmaceutical services in Malta (3) revealed that almost 31% of
their study population visited a pharmacy primarily to purchase prescribed medication while only
23.3% did so mainly to obtain OTC products.
It was interesting to note that almost 40% of the respondents would also purchase
prescription medicines from another doctor's clinic having acquired the prescription from a clinic
or hospital. This is certainly an alarming situation as it indicates an evident lack of awareness of
the function of a community pharmacy.
Community pharmacies are also often associated with the sale and supply of products
other than drugs and medical supplies. Fortunately, although a pharmacy was not the favoured
place the respondents would go for the purchase of groceries and toiletries, a certain percentage
of the respondents do associate a pharmacy with these items (23% and 43% respectively). There
is certainly justification for the diversification of sales range for these community pharmacies.
Profitability, competition and service are probably the motivation for these premises to offer
items other than drugs and medical supplies. Hence, a significant proportion of the respondents
inevitably perceived the pharmacies that they frequent as a "convenience store".