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KMID : 0370220200640040250
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Yakhak Hoeji
2020 Volume.64 No. 4 p.250 ~ p.256
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Evaluation of Patient Assessment and Counseling of Over-the-counter Oral Contraceptives by Community Pharmacists in South Korea: A Mystery Shopper Study
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Lee Bo-Hee
Lee Yun-Jeong
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Abstract
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Oral contraceptives (OCs) are readily available without a prescription in South Korea. We aimed to evaluatethe quality of patient assessment and medication counseling of over-the-counter (OTC) OCs by community pharmacists inSouth Korea. This was a cross-sectional mystery shopper study, where trained mystery shoppers visited pharmacies andasked for an oral contraceptive for contraception purposes. A total of 54 pharmacies were visited. Majority of pharmacists(75.9%) conducted counseling of OTC OCs during the visit. Of the 24 evaluated medication counseling and patientassessment items, median of 3 (IQR 0.3 to 5) points were achieved and median counseling time lasted 22 (IQR 3.0 to42.3) sec. Pharmacists spent more time on counseling of administration instructions and basic counseling points of the OC,but more detailed patient assessments, such as the presence of concurrent medications or drug allergies were conductedless often. Pharmacists in their 30s and 40s provided more information than those who were in their 50s and older, whileno difference was observed when analyzed by pharmacists’ gender. There are room for improvements in patient assessmentand counseling of OTC OCs by the community pharmacists and such improvements is imperative to ensure safe andefficacious use of OCs.
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KEYWORD
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oral contraceptives, birth control, pharmacy, pharmacist, counseling, mystery shopper
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FullTexts / Linksout information
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Listed journal information
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