COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Medication Dispensing and the use of Health Services in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Aims: March 2020, WHO revealed that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Coughing, sneezing, close contact with infected individuals speeds up the disease spread. Saudi Arabia's government and the Ministry of Health sought to spread social awareness of the importance of quarantine and restriction, but unprecedented challenges and obstacles emerged. Therefore, in this study, the effect of COVID-19 on the dispensing of medication and the use of health care services evaluated.

Study design: This survey, cross-sectional, was performed in Makkah city individuals.

Place and Duration of Study: This survey was run out in Makkah city, Saudi Arabia for seven days, starting from June 15, 2020, to June 22, 2020.

Methodology: Survey of 112 applicants (33 men, 79 women; age range 16-56+ years) had been performed to explore COVID-19 impact on medication dispensing and the use of health care services regarding sociodemographic data in Makkah city residents, Saudi Arabia.

Results: This study demonstrated that most of the survey respondents coped well with COVID-19 changes. A significant correlation was found between coping with COVID-19 changes and the age of participants (F(df) = 7.846 (4,107), P-value 0.006) and (F(df) = 4.025 (4,107), P-value 0.047), respectively. Of all the participants, 68.75% had been able to dispense a prescription medication during COVID-19 restrictions. Among them, 30.36, 21.43, and 16.96% dispensed a prescription once, twice, and more than three times, respectively. The data showed that 67.86% of the participants successfully purchased medication from a community pharmacy during COVID-19 restrictions. There was no change in medication availability or price, at about 61.61% and 76.79%, respectively. A significant correlation between medication availability-price (F(df) = 4.025(3,105), P-value 0.047) was found. During COVID-19 restrictions, 51.79% of the respondents were able to access health care services such as hospitals that provide health checking, or substance use for disease treatment. Interestingly, 25% of the participants had the same accessibility to health care services.

Conclusion: This research revealed that through the COVID-19 pandemic, the dispensing, availability, and price changes of medication and the use of health care services were running in a good manner. This would show that although there were restrictions due to COVID-19, access to medication or health care services was running smoothly.