Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2015.56.41
Contribution of Slovenian community pharmacist counseling to patients’ knowledge about their prescription medicines: a crosssectional study
Nejc Horvat
orcid.org/0000-0001-8460-276X
; Chair of Social Pharmacy, Universityof Ljubljana –Ljubljana, Slovenia
Mitja Kos
orcid.org/0000-0002-6801-6450
; Chair of Social Pharmacy, Universityof Ljubljana –Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sažetak
Aim To assess patients’ knowledge about prescription medicines
they are taking and their view on how much community
pharmacist counseling contributed to their knowledge.
Methods An observational study was designed to obtain
information about patients’ knowledge, their view on pharmacist
counseling, and physicians’/pharmacists’ provision of
information. This study used a specifically designed questionnaire,
which served as an interview guide. 400 patients
picking up a prescription medicine were structurally interviewed
upon leaving one of the 20 randomly chosen Slovenian
pharmacies. The interviews took place in November
and December 2013.
Results Patients were familiar with general information
about the medicines and their application (93%-100% of patients).
Knowledge about considerations (16% of patients)
and adverse effects (20% of patients) was limited. Factors
associated with patient knowledge were physicians’/pharmacists’
adequate provision of information (β = 0.259), patient’s
age (β = - 0.149), patient’s education (β = 0.100), and
prescription type (β = -0.104). Patients’ responses were mostly
consistent with the Summaries of Product Characteristics
(72%-96% of responses). However, 42% of responses to the
question about taking medicine with meals were incorrect.
Pharmacists routinely informed the patients about medication
purpose, dose, application rate, and timing of medication
(in 72%, 89%, 89%, and 77% of cases, respectively).
Other information was rarely offered. Patients with new prescriptions
received significantly more counseling (pharmacist
counseling score 5.9, 5.2, and 4.7 of maximum 10 for
new, regular, and refill prescriptions, respectively, P = 0.001)
and obtained adequate labeling (69%, 26%, and 17% of patients
for new, regular and refill prescriptions, respectively,
P < 0.001) than patients with regular or refill prescriptions.
Conclusion Patients were familiar with basic information
about administration of their prescription medicines, but
lacked knowledge about medication safety. This could be
attributed to pharmacist counseling, which primarily focused
on medicine use instructions.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
139295
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.2.2015.
Posjeta: 1.318 *