Attitudes and beliefs of patients about community pharmacy services

Abstract

There were two aims for this study. The first one was to assess the attitudes and beliefs of people living in Malta about community pharmacy services. The second one was to assess the influence of attitudes and beliefs of people about community pharmacy services on four outcomes: utilization of pharmaceutical services, clinical outcomes brought about as a result of pharmacist over the counter (OTC) recommendations, health and adherence to medication. The prospective cohort study consisted of two interviews. For the first interview, performed as a telephone survey, telephone numbers were identified by simple random sampling and 1,126 people accepted to take part in this study. For the second interview 206 people were interviewed from pharmacies and from local councils both chosen by stratified random sampling. The surveys assessed the persons’ demographics, the persons’ overall attitudes and beliefs about community pharmacy services as well as possible reasons for such attitudes and beliefs. The second interview also assessed the general health, clinical outcomes brought about by pharmacists’ OTC recommendations and adherence to medication protocol. Comparative analysis between more positive attitudes and beliefs and outcomes was carried out. The data retrieved showed that overall the attitudes and belief s of the people residing in Malta about community pharmacy services are positive. In fact 91.06% of respondents to the telephone questionnaire stated that they believe and trust that the pharmacist is an important healthcare provider for their general health concerns while in the second questionnaire 95.15% said that they have positive attitudes and beliefs about community pharmacy services. Overall people in Malta tend to make use of pharmaceutical services regularly. In fact 89.61% of respondents to the telephone questionnaire and 88.83% respondents of the second questionnaire stated that they use the pharmaceutical services regularly. People`s results following pharmacists` OTC recommendations are positive (92.54%). When carrying out the comparative analysis between attitudes and beliefs and outcomes it was noted that there was a statistically significant association between more positive attitudes and beliefs about community pharmacy services and a higher utilization of pharmaceutical services (p value = 0.000 for both the telephone survey as well as the pharmacy/local council survey). There was a statistically significant association between more belief in the pharmacist and more positive results with OTC recommendations (p value = 0.000), and more belief in the pharmacist and adherence to medication (p value = 0.001). There was no statistically significant association between more positive attitudes and beliefs and health (p value >0.05). People living in Malta have positive attitudes and beliefs about community pharmacy services and make use of such pharmaceutical services regularly. There is a statistically significant association between more positive attitudes and beliefs towards community pharmacy services or belief in the pharmacist`s help to achieve better clinical outcomes and a number of outcomes. These are more utilisation of pharmaceutical services, more positive outcomes as a result of OTC recommendations and more adherence to medication. These encouraging positive results continue to demonstrate the importance of community pharmacists’ services in the citizens’ daily healthcare. The results reaffirm that attitudes and beliefs do have a strong effect on outcomes.