Chewable tablets : is this dosage form well evaluated by palestinian health professionals?

الملخص EN

To evaluate the scientific knowledge and attitudes of health professionals in Palestine regarding the advantages of chewable tablets in comparison with other related dosage forms.

Methods: Data was gathered from a questionnaire that was handed out to community pharmacists & Physicians.

Pharmaceutical industry decision makers were also enrolled in this study.

Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software program version 11.0.

Results: Both the 149 pharmacists and 111 physicians who participated in this study, had very close opinions with regard to the superiority of chewable tablets over the corresponding liquid dosage forms, especially when issues of palatability, stability, dose precision, ease of administration, portability and safety were mentioned.

Pharmacists and physicians were uncertain about the higher effectiveness of chewable tablets in comparison with other related dosage forms, (i.e syrups and suspensions), which contain the same active ingredients.

All industrial decision makers thought that the number of chewable tablet formulations present in Palestine is relatively low.

One third of them believed that this dosage form is not fully evaluated nor well appreciated by pharmacists and doctors.

About half of them thought that the lack of technology or specialized personnel is the reason behind the poor development of this dosage form.

Conclusion: The importance of chewable tablets is not completely understood and appreciated by the Palestinian health personnel.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers should pay more attention to the development and production of chewable tablets due to the obvious advantages of this dosage form.

Clear and complete information about this dosage form must be provided to pharmacists and physicians by medical representatives.