TY - JOUR

T1 - The influence of generic substitution on the content of patient-pharmacist communication in Swedish community pharmacies

AU - Olsson, Erika

AU - Wallach-Kildemoes, Helle

AU - Ahmed, Ban

AU - Ingman, Pontus

AU - Kaae, Susanne

AU - Kälvemark Sporrong, Sofia

N1 - © 2016 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - OBJECTIVES: The objective was to study the relationship between the length and content of patient-pharmacist communication in community pharmacies, and generic substitution.METHODS: The study was conducted in six community pharmacies in Sweden. Non-participant observations with audio recordings and short structured interviews were conducted. Out of 32 pharmacists 29 agreed to participate (90.6%), as did 282 out of 407 patients (69.3%). Logistic regression analysis was applied to calculate odds ratio for occurrence of generic substitution. Linear regression (β-coefficients) was applied to test for differences in time spent on different categories.KEY FINDINGS: In encounters where generic substitution occurred more time (19.2 s) was spent on non-medical (for instance administrative or economical) issues (P = 0.01, 95% confidence interval 4.8-33.6). However, the total time of the encounter was not significantly longer. The amount of time spent on non-medical issues increased with age of patient (age 60+: β, 33 s, P < 0.001). The results indicate that more time was spent on medical issues with patients who have a higher education (high school: β, 10.8 s, P = 0.07, university: β, 10.2 s, P = 0.11) relative to those with only elementary school education.CONCLUSIONS: Occurrence of generic substitution was correlated with more time spent on communicating on non-medical, but not on medical, issues. No extra time was spent on medical information for the groups normally overrepresented among those with low health literacy. This study suggests that pharmacists need to further embrace their role in promoting rational use of medicines, not least when generic substitution occurs.

AB - OBJECTIVES: The objective was to study the relationship between the length and content of patient-pharmacist communication in community pharmacies, and generic substitution.METHODS: The study was conducted in six community pharmacies in Sweden. Non-participant observations with audio recordings and short structured interviews were conducted. Out of 32 pharmacists 29 agreed to participate (90.6%), as did 282 out of 407 patients (69.3%). Logistic regression analysis was applied to calculate odds ratio for occurrence of generic substitution. Linear regression (β-coefficients) was applied to test for differences in time spent on different categories.KEY FINDINGS: In encounters where generic substitution occurred more time (19.2 s) was spent on non-medical (for instance administrative or economical) issues (P = 0.01, 95% confidence interval 4.8-33.6). However, the total time of the encounter was not significantly longer. The amount of time spent on non-medical issues increased with age of patient (age 60+: β, 33 s, P < 0.001). The results indicate that more time was spent on medical issues with patients who have a higher education (high school: β, 10.8 s, P = 0.07, university: β, 10.2 s, P = 0.11) relative to those with only elementary school education.CONCLUSIONS: Occurrence of generic substitution was correlated with more time spent on communicating on non-medical, but not on medical, issues. No extra time was spent on medical information for the groups normally overrepresented among those with low health literacy. This study suggests that pharmacists need to further embrace their role in promoting rational use of medicines, not least when generic substitution occurs.

U2 - 10.1111/ijpp.12299

DO - 10.1111/ijpp.12299

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27531756

VL - 25

SP - 274

EP - 281

JO - International Journal of Pharmacy Practice

JF - International Journal of Pharmacy Practice

SN - 0961-7671

IS - 4

ER -