Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To identify trends and challenges in pharmacists' communication with pediatric patients in Saudi Arabia. It also studies the potential factors affecting their overall performance. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 170 pharmacists working in different healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia was carried out. A novel comprehensive 38-item survey questionnaire was utilized. The questionnaire comprised 2 main sections: demographic data and potential influencing factors and communication skills with children. The communication domain assessed the degree to which the pharmacist could communicate with a child in 7 main areas. Comparisons of communication performance were carried out by Chi-square tests, and associations with 24 factors were determined by logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Approximately 76% of pharmacists demonstrated unsatisfactory communication with children (p=8.47×10(-10)). Approximately 91% of pharmacists depended on speaking to parents rather than directly talking to children, even when present (p=7.791×10(-26)). In addition, although 88.23% of pharmacists expressed high confidence in their communication skills (p=9.899×10(-24)), their actual performance with children in different age groups showed that 63.52% performed poorly, while only 36.46% demonstrated good performance (p=4.2×10(-4)). Factors which might be associated with pharmacists' performance were identified. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia face significant challenges in communicating with pediatric patients. Targeted training is needed to improve communication skills, medication adherence, and children's health outcomes.