An Exploratory Study of Over-the-Counter Medication Counseling Topics in Community Pharmacies and Alignment with...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy practice and patient safety.
• Medication adherence and counseling.
• Over-the-counter (OTC) drug utilization.

Background:

• Community pharmacists are crucial for patient safety through over-the-counter (OTC) medication counseling.
• Existing OTC counseling frameworks guide pharmacists but their real-world application is understudied.
• Understanding current consultation practices is essential for improving patient safety and OTC drug use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify topics discussed during pharmacist-patient consultations for OTC medications.
• To evaluate the alignment of these consultations with established OTC counseling frameworks.
• To inform potential improvements in pharmacy education and practice regarding OTC guidance.

Main Methods:

• Recruited participants from 10 community pharmacies for a simulated OTC self-treatment scenario.
• Recorded participant selection of OTCs and interactions with pharmacy staff using Tobii Pro Glasses 2.
• Analyzed recordings using deductive and inductive content analysis to compare consultations with existing frameworks.

Main Results:

• 32% of 144 participants engaged in an OTC consultation with a pharmacist.
• Eight distinct topic categories emerged from the consultations.
• Consultations predominantly focused on product details, showing limited alignment with existing counseling frameworks.

Conclusions:

• Current OTC medication consultations in community pharmacies primarily focus on product details.
• There is a notable discordance between real-world consultations and established counseling frameworks.
• Further research is needed to explore the impact of this discordance on OTC misuse and to refine counseling frameworks for enhanced patient safety.