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Objectives This study aimed to explore the preparedness of pharmacy students to actively participate in public health services by examining their attitude towards and knowledge about the national public health programmes (NPHPs). Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire survey of the students in Unaizah College of Pharmacy (UCP) and College of Pharmacy Main Campus (CPMC), Qassim University, between October 2019 and February 2020. Key findings A total of 100 out of 125 students responded to the questionnaire at a response rate of 80%. While the majority (77%) of the participants agreed on the necessity for pharmacists to know about the NPHPs, 71% reported they did not learn about National Health Policy in their pharmacy curriculum. Also, a small number of pharmacy students, at 16%, believed that their current knowledge about the NPHPs was sufficient or very sufficient. Lastly, 81% of the participants felt that they had an important or very important role to play in the NPHPs. Conclusions The majority of the participants expressed interest in more education on public health during their pharmacy education. Their interest supports the advancement of public health education to facilitate greater involvement of pharmacists in public health services.

ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the relative importance of attitude and subjective norms as well as physicians' characteristics and practice-setting factors in predicting the outcome of physicians' interactions with MRs.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 602 physicians in Sana'a, Yemen. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential analyses. The t-test/Mann–Whitney test and ANOVA/Kruskal–Wallis test with post hoc analysis, principal component analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis were applied at an a priori significance level of 0.05.Key findingsThe response rate was 76.5%. Results showed that physicians who see a greater number of MRs per week or have academic affiliations were significantly more likely to have received high/low-value promotional items than were those who saw fewer MRs or have no academic affiliations (P values < 0.001 and 0.021, respectively). Also male physicians and physicians who have private clinics were significantly more likely to have received high-value promotional items (P value < 0.001). Three out of five hypotheses were supported (physicians' belief in the appropriateness of accepting high/low-value pharmaceutical companies' promotional techniques relate positively and significantly to their behaviour of interactions with MRs, and physicians' attitudes towards pharmaceutical companies relates positively and significantly to their interactions with MRs).ConclusionPhysicians in Yemen consider most of the promotional techniques as normal practice. The article provides empirical evidence for policymakers in developing countries in general, and Yemen specifically, to develop suitable policies and regulations for drug promotion.

Objective: Interaction between physicians and medical representatives (MR) is an area of controversy, which discussed heavily in the literature. However, the perspectives of physicians on the extent and composition of pharmaceutical promotion techniques have been neglected especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study aims to bridge this gap through investigating physicians' perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards interactions with medical representatives with special emphasis on their perception about the appropriateness of accepting drug company promotions and their either positive or negative attitudes towards drug promotion activities. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that investigates physicians' perceptions about interactions with medical representatives. Data were collected through an anonymous survey questionnaire circulated to 610 physicians. Key findings: Majority (85.3%) of participated physicians has positive attitudes towards interactions with medical representatives, and they disagree with the idea of banning medical representatives' visits. Also perception of the majority (60.8%) of physicians is that most promotional techniques do not pose ethical problem, and it is appropriate to accept most promotional items. Conclusion: Majority of the physicians have positive attitudes towards interactions with MRs. Most of the physicians believe that most promotional techniques do not pose ethical problem, and it is acceptable to accept promotional items. 1 2017 Royal Pharmaceutical Society This work was supported by Yemeni Ministry of Health and Population. Scopus

Objectives The ethical attitudes of consumers have been widely explored in the literature as a key factor influencing the purchase of counterfeit products. However, the manner in which consumers make decisions regarding the consumption of counterfeit drugs in developing countries remains unclear. This study aims to fill this literature gap by investigating the role of perceived unethical consumer behaviour in discouraging the purchase of counterfeit drugs in a developing country. Method This article reports on two studies conducted in two Sudanese states. The first study employed in-depth qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of policymakers and community pharmacists. The second study employed a face-to-face structured interview survey methodology to collect data from 1003 patients and tested two hypotheses. The study used structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation to test the hypotheses. Survey items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS software version 5.0. Key findings The results revealed that counterfeit drug purchases are not influenced by consumers' awareness of the societal consequences of unethical buying behaviour (t = 0.575). The results also revealed that the decision to participate in this unethical buying behaviour is not perceived as socially stigmatised (β = −0.235, t = 5.477). Conclusion Contrary to the results of many previous studies, counterfeit drug purchases in Sudan are not significantly affected by consumer awareness of societal consequences and are not socially stigmatised. Although the purchase of counterfeit drugs poses ethical and safety implications, consumers in Sudan still view such purchase decisions as rational.