Public’s perspectives on guideline‐recommended self‐medication consultations in German community pharmacies

Seiberth, Jasmin Mina; Moritz, Katharina; Vogel, Carl Friedrich; Bertsche, Thilo; Schiek, Susanne

doi:10.1111/hsc.13082

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Counseling deficits were also noted by the 2 most recent national SPM studies: one also for acute diarrhea OTC medications [ 22 ] and the other for oral emergency contraception (EC) OTC medications [ 23 ]. In addition to contrasting national results from surveys of pharmacy staff [ 68 , 69 ] and from a passers-by survey [ 70 ]—although these results are not surprising due to a social desirability bias or a self-report bias—a nonparticipant observation of pharmacy staff of German CPs for cross-indication counseling practices also found deficits [ 69 ]. In any case, with few exceptions [ 71 ], the present results are consistent with those of international SPM studies for headache medications [ 72 – 75 ] and for specific analgesics [ 28 , 35 , 76 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In more recent studies, the majority of pharmacy staff stated that most customers—sometimes due to time constraints or preexisting knowledge about the medication—do not want counseling or have already been informed by the physician or in the hospital [ 68 , 69 ]. However, a recent passers-by survey found that most respondents wanted counseling, even if they did not ask for it directly [ 70 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Quality of Counseling for Headache OTC Medications in German Community Pharmacies Using a Simulated Patient Approach: Are There Differences between Self-Purchase and Purchase for a Third Party?

Langer

Kunow

2022

The Scientific World Journal

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Background. In Germany—as worldwide—headache is one of the most frequent causes of self-medication. The dispensing of over-the-counter (OTC) medications may only be carried out by community pharmacies (CPs). In doing so, CPs have to ensure “adequate” counseling, for both self-purchase and purchase for a third party, which also occurs in everyday pharmacy practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of counseling for headache OTC medications in German CPs and, as the first study worldwide, to analyze whether and to what extent there are differences in counseling between self-purchase and purchase for a third party. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out using the covert simulated patient methodology (SPM) in all 42 CPs in the German big city Potsdam. With the help of 8 trained simulated patients (SPs), each CP was visited four times by a different SP. The SPs simulated in each CP two scenarios two times with the demand for an OTC medication against headache, which differed only in whether the demand was for themselves or for their boyfriend/girlfriend. Results. All 168 planned pharmacy visits (84 visits per scenario) were successfully carried out. Overall, the median counseling score was 3.0 out of 9 points (interquartile range [IQR 2.0]). There were no significant differences between the two scenarios (Wilcoxon signed-rank test; p = 0.495 , r = 0.053). In a multivariate binary logistic regression analysis, the counseling level and the different scenarios were not significantly associated (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.635, 95% CI = 0.673–3.972, p = 0.278 ). Conclusions. Due to the partly considerable deficits in counseling of German CPs, policy-makers and the regional chambers of pharmacists are called upon to take appropriate measures to improve the quality of counseling. It is positive that no differences in counseling between self-purchase and purchase for a third party were found, but further verifying studies with a modified methodology are recommended.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quality of Counseling for Headache OTC Medications in German Community Pharmacies Using a Simulated Patient Approach: Are There Differences between Self-Purchase and Purchase for a Third Party?

Langer

Kunow

2022

The Scientific World Journal

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“…The monitoring of real-world usage of OTC medicinal products by community pharmacists would be useful to set up appropriate guidelines on the management and tri-age of patients suffering from upper GI symptoms, to improve pharmacovigilance, and the establishment of proper counseling on such medicinal products. Considering that patients expect high-quality counseling on self-medication (Seiberth et al 2021;Veiga et al 2021), the use of evidence-based tools for supporting pharmacists is widely recognized as a key point for improving self-medication care (Moritz et al 2019(Moritz et al , 2021a. At the international level, there are many examples of tools accessible to pharmacists (i.e., algorithms or symptom assessment questionnaires) for these disorders (New Zealand Guidelines Group 2003;Aradottir and Kinnear 2008;Holtmann et al 2011;Tack et al 2014;Showande and Adelakun 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The management of upper gastrointestinal symptoms: A study on community pharmacies in Italy

Keber¹,

Rocco²,

Musazzi³

et al. 2021

PHAR

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Upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are usual complaints among patients presenting to Italian community pharmacies. However, information on treatment history of those patients is often lacking. This descriptive, cross-sectional study aims at exploring the medication history of individuals with upper GI tract symptoms visiting one of the 20 enrolled community pharmacies, over a period of 7 months, based on the administration of a questionnaire. Of 1,020 interviewees, 62.1% had asked for a medical consultation. The most frequent symptom was epigastric burning (31.8%), followed by acid regurgitation (14.6%) and post-prandial fullness (12.0%). Of the 1,609 therapies, proton pump inhibitors constituted the most represented therapeutic class (35.6%) followed by antacids (17.5%) and alginate-based products (17.2%). In treating symptoms, 38.1% of the patients do not seek medical advice, while 42.0% rely on non-prescription therapies. As findings suggest, support to patients with GI disorders in community pharmacies can be enhanced for a safer self-medication.

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“…As a consequence of the different methods of data collection in the two study parts, a statistical comparison of the results was not applicable. The patients’ perception was not targeted in this study but has already been evaluated by our research group [ 73 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the attitude towards and the current practice of information exchange during self-medication counselling in German community pharmacies? An assessment through self-report and non-participant observation

et al. 2020

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Background Guidelines encourage relevant information exchange between pharmaceutical staff and patients during self-medication consultation. Thereby, assessing the patient's situation and providing information is crucial for patient safety. So far, limited studies have investigated this information exchange, particularly in Germany. We aimed to assess the attitude towards and the current practice of guideline-recommended information exchange in German community pharmacies.

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Public’s perspectives on guideline‐recommended self‐medication consultations in German community pharmacies

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 8 publications

References 49 publications

The Quality of Counseling for Headache OTC Medications in German Community Pharmacies Using a Simulated Patient Approach: Are There Differences between Self-Purchase and Purchase for a Third Party?

The Quality of Counseling for Headache OTC Medications in German Community Pharmacies Using a Simulated Patient Approach: Are There Differences between Self-Purchase and Purchase for a Third Party?

The management of upper gastrointestinal symptoms: A study on community pharmacies in Italy

What is the attitude towards and the current practice of information exchange during self-medication counselling in German community pharmacies? An assessment through self-report and non-participant observation

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