Community pharmacist-child medication communication: magnitude, influences, and content

To describe community pharmacist-child medication communication with respect to its magnitude, influences, and content.

Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Indiana.

460 community pharmacists.

Mailed questionnaire was used for data collection. Sections included: (1) pharmacists' practice of medication communication with children and with adults; (2) factors influencing the pharmacist's decision to communicate with children about medications; (3) elements of pharmacist-parent and pharmacist-child communication; and (4) demographics.

Daily percentage of children to whom pharmacists talked directly about medications.

Response rate was 44.7% with no indications of nonresponse bias. Most respondents were staff pharmacists in chain pharmacies. On average, pharmacists reported engaging in communications about medications with 20.7% of children and 57.0% of adults on a daily basis (t = 23.5, P < or = .0001). Experience as a preceptor and prescription volume significantly influenced the frequency of pharmacists' communication with either adults or children. Pharmacists provided more medication information to parents than to their children, and more medication information to older children than to younger children. Children of all ages were likely to be comforted and given information about the medicine's taste.

Preliminary insights into the interaction between pharmacists and child patients are provided by this study. Considering the relatively low frequency of pharmacist-child communication, interventions aimed at influencing the child's and caregiver's motivation to seek information about the child's care, and improving pharmacist's knowledge about children's cognitive development at various ages may enhance the involvement of children in self-treatment.