A Survey on Willingness to Accept Community Pharmacist’s Consultation Service Regarding Well-dying

ABSTRACT

Background@#The Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision-Making Act has allowed anyone aged 19 or older to sign an Advance Directive not to receive life-sustaining treatment when they are in the ‘death process’. Recently, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association announced to raise awareness of the Advance Directive to the general public through community pharmacies across the country. This study aimed to investigate the public’s willingness to accept pharmacist’s consultation regarding the Advance Directive and to present future directions to pharmacists @*Methods@#This cross-sectional questionnaire study using 16-items was conducted in adults, Study subjects were recruited by convenience sampling method during August 5-15, 2020. @*Results@#Of 460 respondents, 51.7% were younger than 30-year-old and 58.7% were not in the healthcare field in terms of job or major. 60.2% knew about the Advance Directive and 81.7% agreed the necessity to sign when healthy. 50.0% had the willingness to consult with pharmacists on the Advance Directive for well-dying and 80.4% preferred verbal explanation together with written information. Simple linear regression analysis results showed a significant relationship between trust in pharmacists or satisfaction with pharmacist’s communication and willingness to use pharmacist’ consultation on the Advance Directive (1-point increases in values measured on a five-point scale are associated with 0.464 and 0.486 increases, respectively.) @*Conclusion@#This study suggests that pharmacists need to improve the public’s trust and communication capability to satisfy with public’s demands on well-dying service.