Background:
Obesity is one of the
health problems which could cause
health impacts, as well as economic and
social impacts.
Community pharmacists are accessible
primary health care providers
who can
play a
role in counselling on
diet and
exercise to control weight and correcting medication misuse for weight control.
Literature has shown the
effectiveness of weight management services (WMS) provided by
community pharmacists, but the percentages of this service
provision were low.
Objective:
To systematically
review contributing factors for
community pharmacists
intention to provide weight management services.
Results:
The
systematic review included 3,884 participants from 24 studies. There were four major dimensions of weight management service in
community pharmacies 1)
patient recruitment, 2) problem identification and
referral, 3) counselling, and 4)
monitoring.
Pharmacists indicated difficulty in starting a conversation about weight with
patients. Most
pharmacists performed
diet and weight-loss product counselling, but few
pharmacists monitored
patients progress and adherence to WMS because of the follow-up difficulty. They recommended the use of
mobile applications and
social media to facilitate
monitoring.
Pharmacists viewed that those weight-loss products needed to be better regulated. Therefore, it should be
pharmacists responsibility to correct the irrational use of these products.
Pharmacists authority, inadequate
pharmacist staff, lack of
patient awareness,
patients demand, and private counselling areas were the barriers to weight management service.
Knowledge and
training,
accreditation,
time for
pharmacists to study, reimbursement, multidisciplinary collaboration, and
health resource support could motivate
pharmacists to provide WMS. To start WMS,
pharmacists reported the need for
knowledge about
diet,
lifestyle modification, weight-loss products, and improving
patient engagement in weight management programs. (AU)