Study on the Factors Affecting the Frequency of Bringing the Drug Profile Book and of Using the Stickers in Patients Taking Antihypertensives

Abstract

A survey was conducted at five insurance pharmacies for four months to clarify how frequently patients taking antihypertensives brought the drug profile book to their pharmacy; how frequently they used stickers for the profile book; and the correlated factors thereof. Survey forms were distributed to patients taking antihypertensives. The main questions were: (1) Patient attributes, (2) Frequency of bringing the profile book to their pharmacy, (3) Frequency of using the stickers, (4) Whether the respondents knew the role of the profile book, (5) Where they learned about the role of the profile book, (6) What kinds of advantages they could identify about using the profile book, (7) Whether they thought the profile book was useful to them (sense of utility), and (8) The number of times they brought their profile book and used the stickers within the latest five pharmacy visits. Analysis of the data of 245 patients revealed correlations between three patient attributes, ie, female, later-stage seniors, and multiple combination, and frequency of bringing the profile book and frequency of using the stickers. Additionally, patients who had a stronger sense of the utility of the profile book and/or thought the profile book was more advantageous had a higher frequency of bringing the profile book and using the stickers. This indicates that pharmacists will need to provide a comprehensible explanation of the role and advantages of the profile book especially to patients who are male, younger than later-stage seniors, and who take three and under medications, in order to enlighten them further.

How Patient-Pharmacist Communication Using the Drug Profile Book Relates to Patient's Behavior regarding Its Use

“…7) By the foregoing survey, we have already obtained the following results. Table 1 shows the patient attributes.…”

“…We already found that frequency of bringing the drug proˆle book and frequency of the sticker a‹x rose in line with the strength of the sense of utility of the drug proˆle book. 7) In this paper, alongside conˆrmation of a relationship between i) the sense of utility of the drug proˆle book and ii) frequency of bringing the drug proˆle book, frequency of the sticker a‹x, and experience of showing the drug proˆle book to the physician, it is conceivable that the patients' sense of the utility of the drug proˆle book were related to the fact that the pharmacist communicated via the drug proˆle book and by the fact that patients themselves had more opportunity to utilize the drug proˆle book and that this, in turn, led to the patients safely undertaking medication. It was reported that 92.3％ of physicians successfully prevented duplicate medication that may have occurred among medical facilities by using the drug proˆle book 8) while another report indicated that only 44.3％ of patients showed the drug proˆle book at clinics or hospitals.…”

“…7) Five pharmacies visited by more than 5 patients per day to receive antihypertensives were selected from among pharmacies located in Osaka, Hyogo, Okayama, Tokyo, and Aichi with cooperation of a company that runs pharmacies and has its headquarters in Osaka. Prior to the survey, survey outline was explained to pharmacists working for these pharmacies.…”

“…Average was 4.5 times. 7) Statistical Analysis Participants were divided into 2 groups: those with or without experience of being questioned by a pharmacist while showing the drug proˆle book. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine the relationship with frequency of bringing the drug proˆle book, sense of utility, and frequency of the sticker a‹x.…”

“…The survey indicated that utilization of the drug proˆle book is related to patient's recognition of its role and its sense of utility. 7) Therefore, in this paper, we examine the relationship between patient-pharmacist communication related to the drug proˆle book at each medication consultation and the patient's behavior regarding its use, based on the database obtained foregoing survey. 7) …”