Okai Grace Adjei, Abekah-Nkrumah Gordon, Asuming Patrick Opoku
1Department Of Public Administration And Health Services Management, University Of Ghana Business School, P. O. Box 78, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
2Department Of Finance, University Of Ghana Business School, P. O. Box 78, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
J Pharm Policy Pract. 2019 Sep 18;12:25. doi: 10.1186/s40545-019-0186-x. eCollection 2019.
To examine the patterns in utilization of community pharmacies and perceptions of the general public towards community pharmacists' role in health services delivery.
A cross-sectional household survey was conducted in Ga West district. A total of 497 adults (18 years and above) were chosen using a three-stage cluster random sampling technique. information on respondents' contact with community pharmacies (i.e. 12 months prior to the study), reasons for visiting the pharmacies, factors influencing the choice of a particular pharmacy and perception towards community pharmacists' roles were collected. Data collected were analyzed using stata version 14.
Out of the 497 respondents, 415 indicated that they had used pharmacies within the last 12 months prior to the study, while 82 indicated that they had not used the facilities within the same time frame. majority of the pharmacy users (33.7%) visited community pharmacies once a month. Approximately 84% of the pharmacy users frequently visited community pharmacies to get treatment for minor ailments. most users (about 75%) chose to visit a particular pharmacy as it was close to their home/workplace/hospital/clinic. More than half of the pharmacy users identified the pharmacist as the first point of contact in case of any drug-related problem. Less than half of the respondents (44.9%) perceived community pharmacists as health professionals with a good balance between health and business matters.
The findings of the study suggest that beside the fact that majority of the respondents believe that community pharmacists are responsive, friendlier and have the capacity to handle minor ailments, they are indeed using community pharmacies for the treatment of minor ailments. It will therefore be important to develop appropriate policy and regulations that enables community pharmacies to adequately participate in the delivery of primary care and thereby improve population health.
研究社区药房的使用模式以及公众对社区药剂师在医疗服务提供中所起作用的看法。
在加西区进行了一项横断面家庭调查。采用三阶段整群随机抽样技术，共选取了497名成年人（18岁及以上）。收集了受访者与社区药房接触的信息（即研究前12个月内）、前往药房的原因、影响选择特定药房的因素以及对社区药剂师作用的看法。使用Stata 14版本对收集到的数据进行分析。
在497名受访者中，415人表示在研究前的过去12个月内使用过药房，而82人表示在同一时间段内未使用过这些设施。大多数药房使用者（33.7%）每月访问社区药房一次。约84%的药房使用者经常前往社区药房治疗小病。大多数使用者（约75%）选择前往特定药房是因为其距离他们的家/工作场所/医院/诊所较近。超过一半的药房使用者认为药剂师是处理任何与药物相关问题的首要联系人。不到一半的受访者（44.9%）认为社区药剂师是在健康和商业事务之间取得良好平衡的健康专业人员。
研究结果表明，除了大多数受访者认为社区药剂师反应迅速、更友好且有能力处理小病这一事实外，他们确实在利用社区药房治疗小病。因此，制定适当的政策和法规以使社区药房能够充分参与初级保健服务并从而改善人群健康将非常重要。
