ABSTRACT
Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the perceived importance of various pharmacy functions among residents in the community health care system.Methods: We conducted an online survey of nationwide panelists enrolled by a research company to assess the perceived degree of importance of having a pharmacy that performs various functions in the community health care system (i.e., “comprehensive importance”).Results: “Comprehensive importance” was compared among 2,400 respondents disaggregated into several groups. The results revealed that “encouragement for medical consultations at medical institutions” had a strong effect on “comprehensive importance”.Conclusion: The results of this survey highlight the need for preventive medical care and a further expansion of the consultation function at pharmacies in the future.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to investigate pharmacy service needs of patients and peace of mind of patients in relation to out-of-hours pharmacy services. For patients who came to the health insurance pharmacy, we conducted a survey on the patients’ attitudes toward composition and consultation needs and peace on mind in relation to out-of-hours pharmacy services to investigate the potential characteristic of the needs regarding pharmacy services. We also found that a factor that influenced their peace of mind with regard to services offered by pharmacies was out-of-hours dispensation services. We analyzed patient attributes and local and composition and consultation needs using chi-square test. As a result, significant difference was observed in a ratio of distribution of the composition needs in six items including “sex” and “age.” Similarly, significant difference was observed in four items including “sex.” In addition, in a patient with multiple factors that needs becomes higher, it was shown that composition and consultation had a big influence of “the living together with a child.” The patient attribute that composition and consultation became high in the needs together was “a woman”, “under 60 years old”, “the living together with a child” and “local region”. For analysis by Generalized Linear Model, the two factors of “consultation during holiday,” “nighttime dispensation” were extracted. Furthermore, in a crowd “a woman” and “local region”, “consultation during holiday” was extracted, and a difference was seen in influence in a case for the whole. In this study, it became clear that pharmacy service to give the peace of mind to a patient was a holiday and night composition. From the result, in the community medicine system, it was suggested that the improvement of these service offers was important.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to assess the negative effects of some factors on medicine-taking behavior. For the patients taking oral medication who visited a health insurance pharmacy, we enacted the actual situation of medication and conducted an attitude survey on the feeling of burden and resistance of taking the drugs. The survey also covered the factors that can influence medicine-taking behavior and the extent of the influence. For differences in each factor such as patient characteristics, lifestyle, and medication status, we used the 2 test to analyze the association with medicine-taking behavior. We found significant differences in age, dietary habits, occupation, periodic consultation with the pharmacy/doctor, and unpleasant experiences. In addition, in patients with multiple factors that cause noncompliance with medication, we observed a strong influence of age and occupation. From the factor analysis, we obtained data on time, quantity, and pharmaceutical factors (three factors called regular factors). These factors negatively influenced the use of medication by the patients. Next, in the covariance structure analysis, the influence of time and the quantity factor on medication-related stress was the observed to be the strongest, whereas the influence of the regular factors was not significant. Furthermore, there were differences in the influence of these factors depending on patient characteristics.