Healthcare practitioners in Singapore are increasingly seeking a comprehensive probiotics database, driven by growing public interest in and inquiries about these products, according to recent research. The database, developed by researchers from National Healthcare Group’s Group Health Informatics, the Department of Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore, Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Pharmacy, and La Trobe University, Melbourne, aims to address the need for expanded probiotic knowledge among practitioners.
The research involved feedback from 30 pharmacists who participated in the pilot trial of the database. Of these, 13 (52%) practiced in hospital settings, while 12 (48%) practiced in community settings. Interestingly, 88% of the pharmacists rated their probiotic knowledge as ‘little’ or ‘medium’. They also reported receiving numerous inquiries about probiotics, with an average of at least four inquiries per week.
The main challenge faced by healthcare practitioners in recommending probiotics lies in the complexity of probiotic efficacy, which is influenced by factors such as strain specificity. For instance, probiotics of the same genus and species but different strains can have varying effects on the same indication.
The probiotics database provides information on various probiotic product brands, including details such as genus, species, and/or strains used, dosing regimen, product benefits, suitable age groups, and available scientific evidence. The database includes 753 products sourced from physical and online stores in Singapore, matched with clinical trials from PubMed conducted between January 2008 and June 2022.
Users can search the database by indication, product, or strain, allowing them to find relevant probiotic products and key information such as active ingredients, dosage regimen, suitability for special populations, and storage conditions. The database was trialed among pharmacists in various institutions in Singapore, with the updated version adding 304 new probiotic products and a ‘search by strain’ function.
