Poll finds pharmacists underused

Drug Store News,  Oct 10, 2005  by James Frederick

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WASHINGTON -- The American Pharmacists Association wanted to know how much Americans take advantage of the skills and training of their local community pharmacist. The answer, it appears, is not very much.

Fewer than half of Americans, or 48 percent, tell their pharmacist about other prescription drugs they're taking, according to a recent survey from APhA. And only 1-in-3-32 percent--disclose which over-the-counter medicines they use.

Those findings came from the "Know Your Medicine/Know Your Pharmacist" survey, conducted in July by Wilson Health Information LLC. Its goal: to collect and report information about how consumers interact with and perceive their pharmacist and ow their relationship with pharmacists impacts their knowledge of their health, medicines and medical treatments.

The findings provide a stark example of the divide that remains between community pharmacy's goal of elevating pharmacists to the status of a more engaged and integrated member of a comprehensive network of health care and prevention on the one hand and the reality that plays out all too often at the busy retail pharmacy counter. In the real-world setting, pharmacists often are still too busy to spend much time on face-to-face counseling, and patients accustomed to that reality or simply not interested in changing it--don't ask.

In general, most consumers do not make enough use of their pharmacist's experience, education and knowledge of medications, the poll's authors reported. Only 35 percent of the 1,565 consumers surveyed knew their pharmacist's name, and a majority, 58 percent, of them "hardly ever or never asked pharmacists" about their drug therapy or medicines, according to APhA.

Indeed, the Wilson poll noted, consumers are far more likely "to be on a first-name basis with their hair dresser ... compared with their pharmacist," at 56 percent versus 21 percent. They also are more likely to be aware of the main ingredients in their OTC medicines, vitamins or mineral supplements and herbal or natural products than those in their prescription drugs, according to the survey. Only 55 percent of respondents knew the active ingredients in their dispensed medications.

Pollsters found a clear relationship between a higher-quality level of interaction between pharmacists and patients and an improvement in patients' knowledge of medications and effective therapy. "Consumers who know their pharmacist's name are more likely to know their medicines," the APhA noted in its report. "There's a clear relationship between the consumer and his or her pharmacist and that consumer's knowledge of how to use medications with lower risk of adverse effects and better health outcomes."

The group specifically noted that Consumers who know their pharmacist's name have better medication use habits" and are more likely to:

* tell their pharmacist the other medicines they currently are taking.

* read product labels all the time (47percent).

* know the main ingredients of the prescription medicines they are taking (61 percent).

* use their pharmacist as a source of information on medicines (93 percent).

The survey's release came in advance of American Pharmacists Month, which the APhA launched last October. Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals and McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, the month-long observance was set up to boost "consumers' understanding of the pharmacist's role in improving medication use and advancing patient care," according to APhA.

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