Odili et al Journal of Drug Delivery & Therapeutics. 2019; 9(6):95-101 ISSN: 2250-1177 [95] CODEN (USA): JDDTAO Available online on 15.11.2019 at http://jddtonline.info Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics Open Access to Pharmaceutical and Medical Research © 2011-18, publisher and licensee JDDT, This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited Open Access Research Article Internet and Social Media use among Pharmacists in a state in Nigeria Odili, Valentine U. 1 , Amibor, Kingsley Chiedu 2 , Obaseki, Angela Omoikhefue 2 1 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria 2 Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Nigeria ABSTRACT Objectives: This study determined the use of internet and social media by pharmacists in Delta State as well as their experiences with the internet and patients. Method: This was achieved through the use of a 32 item, structured questionnaire, pretested and administered to 100 pharmacists attending the quarterly meeting of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in Abraka, Delta State. Use of internet and social media were evaluated by Chi square analysis, using SPSS 20. At 95% confidence interval, a 2-tailed, P- value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Of 100 questionnaires administered, 81 were returned, giving a response rate of 81%. Majorities (29.6%) were aged 30-39 years, there were more males (54.3%) than females, one third (39.5%) had been in practice for 1-10 years. Nearly half (48.1%) were in community practice, more than half (56.8%) were practicing in Asaba. Majority (61.7%) used electronic communication for professional services; a quarter (27.2%) used email to communicate with their patients. Whatsapp was 3.5%, text messaging and Face book were 1.2% each. Significant differences were found in their online activities. Reasons for not communicating online included respondents not being computer literate (9.9%), irregular power supply in location (9.9%), lack of time (2.5%). Conclusion: Internet use among respondents in the study area was poor, with those practicing in urban capital using the internet most. There is need to encourage greater internet use among pharmacists because of the obvious benefits to patient care. Keywords: Internet use, pharmacists, social media Article Info: Received 10 Sep 2019; Review Completed 21 Oct 2019; Accepted 28 Oct 2019; Available online 15 Nov 2019 Cite this article as: Odili VU, Amibor KC, Obaseki AO, Internet and Social Media use among Pharmacists in a state in Nigeria , Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics. 2019; 9(6):95-101 http://dx.doi.org/10.22270/jddt.v9i6.3678 *Address for Correspondence: Amibor Kingsley Chiedu(Pharm. D., MPH, FPCPharm), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria INTRODUCTION The use of electronic channels in healthcare communication has continued to gain popularity in the last couple of years. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30] Several studies carried out by pharmacists in the United States on electronic communications and social media use for professional purposes examined either the general use of social media by pharmacists or the use of social media for professional activities other than communication between pharmacists and patients. [31, 32, 33] A 2009 Survey showed that majority of pharmacists use social media primarily for personal purposes. [31] Another study in 2010 found that respondents use Face book primarily for social purposes. [32] A study in 2012 on pharmacists Twitter accounts revealed that only 10% of accounts are of professional rather than social nature. [33] A study carried out in Spain on the primary use of the internet for professional purposes by pharmacists revealed that 46.7% of pharmacists share information with citizens, 38% share information with friends and relatives, 9.2% spread their own scientific papers to the scientific community, 7.4% promote a debate in their specialty, and 18.8% share information with their patients. [34] The Spanish study revealed that 73.3% of pharmacists use email to communicate with other healthcare professionals, while only 38% of pharmacists do so with patients. [34] A study carried out to gain insight into the use of the internet for practice related purposes by community pharmacists and general practitioners in Northern Ireland revealed that both professions used the internet regularly as a source of health related information and both had to deal with internet informed patients. Community pharmacists were more likely to feel challenged by these patients, while general practitioners sometimes had to deal with unnecessarily worried patients or patients with unrealistic expectations. [35]