2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A study on patient-pharmacist risk communication in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
18390161
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Medical sociology
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
HAGIHARA Akihito Kyushu University, Faculty of Medicine, Professor (50291521)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
NOBUTOMO Koichi Kyushu University, Faculty of Medicine, Professor (90037424)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Risk communication / Pharmacist / Patient / Medical compliance |
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| Research Abstract |
Although pharmacists subjectively judge the level of the explanation that they provide in actual practice, little is known about this judgment. Therefore, we investigated the association between patient and pharmacist evaluations of pharmacist explanations of drugs. We also identified factors relating to the accuracy of pharmacist judgments as to the level of the explanation delivered to patients.
The subjects were 1500 patient-pharmacist pairs in Fukuoka, Japan. The study was conducted from November, 2006 to March, 2007. Of 250 pharmacists and 1500 patients selected randomly, 134 pharmacists and 644 patients returned questionnaires (response rates, 53.6% and 42.9%,respectively). We analyzed 666 patient-pharmacist pairs.
We got the following findings. (1) With respect to "level of pharmacist explanation", "level of patient understanding of pharmacist explanation", and "adequateness of pharmacist's explanation, guidance and communication", when a pharmacist judges the level or degree is higher than a patient does ("pharmacist better"), the situation is more likely to lead to a poor patient outcome. (2) This finding was in line with the previous finding based upon patient-physician interactions. (3) Factors related to the "pharmacist better" situation were pharmacist age, number of patients per day, and the number of pharmacists at a drugstore.
We first identified factors relating to the accuracy of pharmacist judgment with regard to their explanations to patients. In order to verify the present findings, more studies will be necessary.
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