ABSTRACT
Community pharmacists (CPs) often stock herbal and dietary supplements (HDS) at their community pharmacies. Therefore, CPs should be held responsible for ensuring safe and appropriate use of HDS. The present study aims to investigate the factors associated with the intention (INT) of CPs to assess their customers’ HDS use. A crosssectional study using a self-completed questionnaire was employed. A questionnaire along with a cover letter and stamped envelope was sent to CPs at community pharmacies located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Only 70 out of 533 CPs responded to the survey (response rate = 13.13%). The results showed that 11.4% (8/70) of CPs always assess customers’ HDS use. The CPs, however, had positive and moderately high INT to assess customers’ HDS use (mean = 3.84 ± 0.70). Positive and significant correlations were noted between INT and belief about consequences, moral norms, belief of capabilities, and role and identity. The relationship between INT and social influences was statistically insignificant. Efforts to enhance the INT of CPs to assess customers’ HDS use should be warranted. This could be achieved by enhancing beliefs that are positively associated with the CPs’ INT to assess customers’ HDS use.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Doctors perceive the interactions with pharmaceutical representatives as professionally appropriate. However, studies have shown that the interaction is associated with less rational prescribing of medications. No previous study has assessed doctors' opinions of the presentation of pharmaceutical representatives and the quality of claims provided to the doctors in Australia and Malaysia. The aim of this study was to compare the opinions of Australian and Malaysian doctors of sales explanations and quality of claims provided by the pharmaceutical representatives
Methods: We recruited samples of primary care doctors in Australia and Malaysia to evaluate pharmaceutical sales visits. After a visit, doctors were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the main product and claims discussed during the visit. Descriptive statistics were employed, and Chi-square analysis and clustered linear regression were used to assess differences between doctors from both countries
Results: The majority of doctors reported that the presentations were convincing as well as likely to change their prescribing habits and improved their knowledge. The majority of marketing claims recorded by doctors in Australia and Malaysia were classified as vague claims. Approximately one-third of the claims were unambiguous [Australia 31% and Malaysia 33%]. In a majority of the presentations [Australia, 65%, Malaysia, 84%], doctors indicated that the primary claims by the pharmaceutical representatives were entirely or nearly accurate
Conclusions: Doctors in Australia and Malaysia held generally positive views of the presentations of pharmaceutical representatives, although the information being presented varied
Subject(s)
Humans , Administrative Claims, Healthcare , Community Health Workers , Surveys and Questionnaires , Pharmaceutical Services , Occupational Health PhysiciansABSTRACT
The best insulin regimen for the intensification of insulin therapy in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] remains controversial. Despite substantial research, the body of evidence concerning the safety aspects of such regimens has never been summarized. We conducted a 14-year narrative review to compare the safety outcomes of basal-bolus [BB] versus premixed [PM] insulin regimens. We searched electronic databases [PubMed, Scopus, Proquest and Google Scholar] for English language studies published from January 2000 to December 2014 to identify studies comparing insulin intensification regimens. Only studies measuring the safety-related parameters of the specific regimens in T2DM adult patients were selected for further review. The extracted data were independently reviewed by two researchers, and disagreements were resolved by discussion. Of the 20 retrieved studies, we included 10 studies that specifically compared the safety parameters of BB and PM Insulin regimens. Among the safety outcomes measured were hypoglycaemia, weight gain and adverse events. Broadly, we determined that the BB insulin regimens were comparable to the PM insulin regimens in terms of hypoglycaemia and adverse events. In terms of weight gain, two of seven studies showed significant weight gain in BB insulin regimen arms. Generally, the safety profile of BB insulin regimen was comparable to that of the PM insulin regimen. None of the identified studies performed head to-head comparisons utilizing human insulin regimens in both arms. Research comparing non-analogue insulin regimens is warranted