Community pharmacist-child medication communication: Magnitude, influences, content, and determinants of the pharmacist's decision to communicate with children

Wararat Anuwong, Purdue University

Abstract

Though it is evident that communication with children about medications leads to improved compliance and therapeutic outcomes, research on pharmacist-child interaction is extremely limited. The purposes of this study were to (1) describe the medication communication between community pharmacists and children with respect to its frequency and content, (2) determine the associations between the communication frequency and selected pharmacists' demographic and practice setting characteristics, and (3) assess the relative importance of five dispensing-related variables identified from the preliminary studies to the pharmacist's decision to communicate directly with children. A total of 460 pharmacists (45%) provided usable responses to a pretested questionnaire sent to a random sample of 1,029 current Indiana community pharmacists. Most respondents were staff pharmacists (57%), practiced in a chain pharmacy (80%), and had fewer than 15 years of experience as a community pharmacist (77%). The respondents reported talking directly to approximately 57 percent of adults and 20 percent of children seen each day about their medications. Experience as a preceptor and prescription volume significantly influenced the frequency of pharmacists' communication with either adults or children. Conjoint analysis revealed that all five dispensing-related variables were considered important by pharmacists when deciding to address children about their medications. Child's expression of interest in receiving information and child's age were the most important variables, followed by prescription status, parent's interest in the child receiving information, and the pharmacist's time availability. The decision model was able to explain approximately 33 percent of the variance in the likelihood of pharmacists' communicating directly with children. With respect to the elements of the communication, pharmacists generally provided more medication information to parents than to their child, regardless of the child's age. Children of all ages were likely to be comforted and provided information about the medicine's taste. However, older children were more likely to be engaged in information gathering and given more medication information. Considering the relatively small frequency of pharmacist-child interaction, interventions aimed at affecting child's and caregiver's motivation to seek information about the child's care, and improving pharmacist's knowledge about children's cognitive development may enhance the involvement of children in their treatment.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Mason, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Pharmaceuticals

COinS