Evaluation of medication use and pharmacy services for visually impaired persons: Perspectives from both visually impaired and community pharmacists

Visual impairment poses various challenges to individuals in taking their medications, but there is a lack of studies on visually impaired population and their use of medications and pharmacy services.

In this study, we aimed to examine (1) the usage pattern of medications and pharmacy services in visually impaired persons and (2) the status of medication counseling conducted to the visually impaired persons by the community pharmacists.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted both to visually impaired and community pharmacists. After pilot testing, survey questionnaires were prepared for each group. Visually impaired participants were recruited from two institutions for visually impaired in South Korea. Pharmacists working at 47 community pharmacies that were selected for braille sticker distribution by the Seoul Metropolitan Government were recruited. SPSS Statistics 23 was used for statistical analysis.

One hundred and fourteen visually impaired and 36 pharmacies participated in this study. Majority of the visually impaired participants reported experiencing challenges in identifying medications at home but were using their own methods, such as the use of different storage containers or locations to distinguish medications. While the visually impaired preferred more detailed counseling and use of various tools for medication counseling, the majority of the pharmacists performed counseling to the patients' family members or caretakers.

For challenges in managing medications by the visually impaired persons, community pharmacists can play a role by putting efforts to understand their impairment and utilize tools available to guide them.