Sleep health awareness in pharmacy undergraduates and practising community pharmacists

Pharmacists are in an optimal position to provide health care to patients with sleep disorders, however, at present their involvement in sleep services is limited. This study aimed to (i) establish an understanding of baseline levels of sleep health awareness, and attitudes towards sleep health in pharmacists and pharmacy undergraduate students in comparison with sleep physicians and (ii) collate the expressed preferences for sleep health training by final year pharmacy undergraduate students and practising community pharmacists.

Two previously validated instruments, the Dartmouth sleep knowledge survey and the ASKME (attitudes section) were used to construct a self-report style questionnaire. Data from respondents were collated and analysed to evaluate differences in responses and test scores between the groups, using the statistical software package-spss 14.0.

Responses from 14 specialized sleep pharmacists, 14 general community pharmacists, 134 final-year undergraduate pharmacy students and 26 sleep physicians were obtained. The mean knowledge score per cent (35.5 +/- 14.0% for students, 48.2 +/- 19.5% for general and 50.6 +/- 16.6% for specialized sleep pharmacists, 86.7 +/- 9.3% for sleep physicians) and attitudes scores (37.3 +/- 4.0 for students, 37.2 +/- 5.4 for general and 40.3 +/- 5.3 for sleep specialist pharmacists, 42.6 +/- 4.7 for sleep physicians, expressed as a score out of 50) were significantly different between groups (Kruskal-Wallis test, P < 0.001). All groups reported slightly different preferences for future training formats and topics. There is a need to improve practising pharmacists' as well as undergraduate students' knowledge of sleep health. The positive attitude reported by the respondents indicates a high level of interest in acquiring knowledge and suggests that a tailored educational programme would be well received and timely.

These results provide a valid indication of the pharmacy profession's expressed and actual training needs, and should be used to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of a sleep health educational strategy, which targets practising community pharmacists and students.