Table 1.

Characteristics of included articles related to roles and barriers of community pharmacy professionals in the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases in Ethiopia.

S. no	Authors	Publication year	Study area	Study design	Number of participants	Bachelor’s degree and above	Diploma holders	Main outcome	Study’s strengths and limitations
1	Belachew et al. (41)	2024	Gondar City	Cross-sectional	100	48	52	Most CPPs had a high knowledge of therapeutic nutrition. They had a positive attitude toward nutritional assessment. Key barriers were low patient awareness and demand for nutrition counseling.	Limited generalizability due to single-centered and small sample size. It used purposive sampling.
2	Sendekie et al. (31)	2024	Multi-center (Northwest Ethiopia-3 cities)	Cross-sectional & SP	184- Survey, 245-SP	42	58	Most CPPs had low involvement in the actual practice of managing and screening patients with diabetes.	Provides valuable insights into CPPs’ role in diabetes management. The study was limited to urban settings.
3	Sendekie et al. (32)	2023	Multi-center (Northwest Ethiopia-3 cities)	Cross-sectional	184	77	107	Most CPPs perceived to have high involvement in diabetes management. However, education, income, and working hours influenced their involvement.	The study did not address rural settings.
4	Sendekie et al. (33)	2023	Gondar City	Cross-sectional and SP	71-survey, 213-SP	44	27	CPPs were highly involved in dispensing prescription-only cardiovascular medications without a prescription and did not provide proper patient counselling, education, and screening.	Limited generalizability due to small sample size.
5	Sendekie et al. (42)	2023	Multi-center (Northwest Ethiopia-3 cities)	Cross-sectional	285	161	124	Most CPPs were actively engaged in promotional activities in preventing and managing NCDs. Barriers include inadequate counseling areas and poor coordination with other healthcare providers.	It provides valuable insights into CPPs’ involvement in NCD health promotion, but limited generalizability, did not account for rural areas, and potential biases in self-reported data.
6	Ayenew et al. (49)	2022	Injibara City	Cross-sectional	24	9	15	CPPs were willing and positive toward health promotion services, but barriers included lack of knowledge, time, confidence, training, space, and management support, as well as employer reluctance to expand their scope, regulatory restrictions, and absence of standard guidelines.	It guides further research on CPPs’ involvement and informs strategies to improve their participation in healthcare. However, the small sample size and focus on one city limit the generalizability of the results.
7	Birarra et al. (43)	2022	Gondar City	Cross-sectional	81	36	45	Most CPPs were knowledgeable about cardiovascular and NCDs management and prevention, but most did not routinely measure blood pressure in hypertensive clients.	A small sample size, cross-sectional study has a low cause-and-effect relationship.
8	Sendekie et al. (22)	2022	Multi-center (Gondar City and nearby rural towns)	Cross-sectional	210	41	169	CPPs provided counseling on cardiovascular disease prevention and management and had a good understanding of strategies. However, their involvement in measuring weight, blood pressure, and glucose levels, dispensing monitoring equipment, and maintaining patient records is limited.	Small sample size and the self-reported nature of the response may affect outcomes due to social desirability bias.
9	Emiru et al. (45)	2020	Multi-center (Amhar region-5 cities)	Cross-sectional	122	55	67	Most pharmacists believed they could identify and manage asthma triggers and provide basic information about the disease and medications. However, they reported it needed more time and a suitable environment to effectively counsel patients on disease management and medication.	The cross-sectional study relied on self-reported practices, which may not accurately reflect actual practices due to social desirability bias.
10	Belachew et al. (34)	2020	Gondar City	Cross-sectional	65	45	20	The overall involvement of CCPs in counseling patients, opinion about metabolic syndrome, and perception toward the effectiveness of the intervention was found to be positive. However, the provision of services, such as monitoring therapy, selling equipment for home blood pressure and glucose monitoring and documenting patient care services needs to be encouraged.	It fills a gap in community pharmacy practice literature in Ethiopia, with a high response rate and a clear, structured questionnaire. Its limitations include its cross-sectional nature, potential respondent bias, and reliance on self-reported data and recall.
11	Moges (40)	2019	Addis Ababa City	Cross-sectional	297	214	83	Most CPPs were willing to perform health promotion functions, with strengths in promoting physical activity, screening for diabetes, and healthy eating. However, they feel less equipped to use test kits for cholesterol screening or explain the harms of khat chewing. Barriers include the lack of guidelines, insufficient space for privacy, and knowledge and skill gaps, leading to low involvement in health promotion.	The questionnaire for quantitative data was validated. Utilized mixed methods. Limitations include recall bias, respondent error, incomplete surveys, and the study’s focus on an urban setting, limiting generalization to rural communities.
12	Teka et al. (48)	2018	Addis Ababa City	Cross-sectional	300	221	79	CPPs provided proper counseling on the timing of oral anti-diabetic drugs and missed doses, but very small gave proper counseling on the importance of continuous screening for nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy.	Use a self-administered questionnaire to mitigate social desirability bias. A cross-sectional study has a low cause-and-effect relationship.
13	Erku et al. (46)	2017	Multi-center (Amhar region-6 cities)	Cross-sectional	412	333	79	CPPs had poor knowledge and low involvement in counseling and health education for diabetes patients, with lack of knowledge and clinical skills as the main barriers	Limitations include being a cross-sectional study conducted in only six cities in Amhara region. The use of self-administered questionnaires may introduce social desirability bias.
14	Asmelashe et al. (44)	2017	Gondar City	Cross-sectional	48	27	21	Counseling on drug misuse and asthma was most common, while traditional medicine and cancer counseling were least performed. Service quality was rated good, with satisfaction reported. The main barrier was a lack of training, and involvement in health promotion varied by sex, education, and pharmacy ownership.	Limited scope in scope and quality of health promotion services. Social desirability bias due to the self-administered questionnaire.
15	Erku et al. (47)	2017	Multi-center (Amhar region-6 cities)	Cross-sectional	412	233	179	The survey revealed low involvement of community pharmacy professionals in public health services, particularly in lifestyle counseling and screening. The main barrier was a lack of knowledge or clinical skills.	The findings may not be generalizable to other regions. The self-administered questionnaire could introduce respondents or recall bias.

SP, simulated patient.