Lack of exposure to pharmacogenomics education among the health care providing students in the West Bank of Palestine

Yazun Jarrar; Rami Musleh; Anas Hamdan; Mustafa Ghanim; Malik Alqub; Sara Abudahab

doi:10.1515/dmpt-2022-0180

Article

Lack of exposure to pharmacogenomics education among the health care providing students in the West Bank of Palestine

Yazun Jarrar , Rami Musleh , Anas Hamdan , Mustafa Ghanim , Malik Alqub and Sara Abudahab

Published/Copyright: March 13, 2023

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From the journal Drug Metabolism and Personalized Therapy Volume 38 Issue 3

Abstract

Objectives

Evaluating the knowledge in pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the first step toward the implementation of PGx testing in clinical practice. This survey aimed to evaluate the knowledge of PGx testing among healthcare providing students at the top-ranked university in the West Bank of Palestine.

Methods

First an online questionnaire consisting of 30 questions regarding the demographic, knowledge, and attitude toward pharmacogenomics testing was structured and validated. Then the questionnaire was distributed to 1,000 current students from different fields.

Results

696 responses was received. The results showed that almost half of the participants (n=355, 51.1%) have never took any courses about PGx during their university training. Only 81 (11.7%) of the students who took the PGx course stated that it helped them understanding how genetic variations affect drug response. The majority of the students were uncertain (n=352, 50.6%) or disagreed (n=143, 20.6%) that the lectures during university education described the effects of genetic variants on drug response. Although most of the students (70–80%) answered that genetic variants can indeed affect the drug’s response, only 162 students (23.3%) responded that VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genotypes influence the response to warfarin. In addition, only 94 (13.5%) students were aware that many medicine labels include clinical information about PGx testing provided by the FDA.

Conclusions

It is concluded from the results of this survey that there is a lack of exposure to PGx education associated with poor knowledge of PGx testing among the healthcare providing students in the West Bank of Palestine. It is recommended to include and improve the lectures and courses regarding PGx as this will have a major impact on precision medicine.

Keywords: education; knowledge; pharmacogenomics (PGx); West Bank of Palestine

Corresponding author: Yazun Jarrar, PhD, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Balqa Applied University, As-Salt, Jordan, Fax: 00962795930283, E-mail: yazan.jarrar@bau.edu.jo

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank An-Najah University (Nablus, the West Bank of Palestine) for supporting this research.

Research funding: No fund was received for this research.
Author contribution: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: An-Najah National University’s ethical committee approved the study’s protocol, and the Institutional Review Board number of this study is 16-02-2019.

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Received: 2022-10-29

Accepted: 2023-01-23

Published Online: 2023-03-13

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/dmpt-2022-0180

Keywords for this article

education; knowledge; pharmacogenomics (PGx); West Bank of Palestine