Topical corticosteroid phobia among Danish pharmacy staff.

BACKGROUND:Topical corticosteroid (TCS) phobia may negatively impact treatment adherence. Currently, there are few studies exploring trust and knowledge of TCS use among pharmacy staff. OBJECTIVE:To examine TCS knowledge and possible phobia among Danish pharmacy staff. METHODS:A questionnaire, based on Topical Corticosteroid Phobia (TOPICOP©) questionnaire, was developed and rephrased to fit pharmacy staff. The questions were Likert scales and numerical rating scales (NRS) (0-10). In October/November 2021, 64 pharmacies were invited. If the pharma-cies agreed to participate, a researcher visited the pharmacies and distributed the questionnaires. RESULTS:A total of 244 pharmacy workers from 59 pharmacies participated. The majority (95.4%) responded that they were aware of side effects of TCS, however misconceptions regarding side ef-fects was found in up to 34% of participants. Regarding TCS use, 40% sometimes advised the pa-tients to wait as long as possible before initiating treatment with TCS. Confidence in dispensing TCS to patients was high with a mean of 8.45 (NRS). CONCLUSION:Danish pharmacy staff generally reported high confidence in TCS use. Misconcep-tions regarding side effects were common, and there was a tendency to giving advices on TCS treatment that may indicate low confidence in TCS. Thorough education of pharmacy staff is needed to improve the knowledge of TCS.