Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 13:10:100265.
doi: 10.1016/j.rcsop.2023.100265. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Use of pharmacy services in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults; findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)

Logan T Murry  1 , Michelle Flood  1 , Alice Holton  1 , Rose Anne Kenny  2 , Frank Moriarty  1   2
Affiliations

Use of pharmacy services in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults; findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)

Logan T Murry et al. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. .

Abstract

Introduction: The role of community pharmacists has evolved in recent years with expansion in pharmacy services offered. The extent to which patients utilise such services in community pharmacies in Ireland is unclear.

Objective: To assess pharmacy services use among adults aged ≥56 years in Ireland, and determine the demographic and clinical factors associated with pharmacy services use.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included community-dwelling participants in wave 4 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), aged ≥56 years who were self-respondents. TILDA is a nationally representative cohort study, with wave 4 data collected during 2016. TILDA collects participant demographics and health data, in addition to information on the use of several services when visiting the pharmacy in the last 12 months. Characteristics and pharmacy services use were summarised. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association of demographic and health factors with reporting (i) any pharmacy service use and (ii) requesting medicines advice.

Results: Among 5782 participants (55.5% female, mean age 68 years), 96.6% (5587) reported visiting a pharmacy in the previous 12 months, and almost one fifth of these (1094) utilised at least one non-dispensing pharmacy service. The most common non-dispensing services reported were requesting advice about medications (786, 13.6%), blood pressure monitoring (184, 3.2%), and vaccination (166, 2.9%). Controlling for other factors, female sex (odds ratio (OR) 1.32, 95% CI 1.14-1.52), third-level education (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.51-2.27), higher rates of GP visits, private health insurance (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.07-1.56), higher number of medications, loneliness, and respiratory condition diagnosis (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.14-1.74) were associated with higher likelihood of utilising pharmacy services. The relationship between these factors and requesting medicines advice was similar.

Conclusion: A high proportion of middle-aged and older adults visit community pharmacy and a fifth utilise specified pharmacy services. Despite advances in the services offered in pharmacies, medicines advice remains at the core of pharmacists' practice.

Keywords: Community pharmacy; Healthcare utilization; High-risk medicines; Medicines advice; Pharmacy services.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overall frequency of community pharmacy service use reported by TILDA participants.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Prevalence of requesting advice about medications by use of high-risk medication classes. * denotes a statistically significant difference.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Factors associated with reporting any pharmacy services use in multivariate logistic regression.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Melton B.L., Lai Z. Review of community pharmacy services: what is being performed, and where are the opportunities for improvement? Integr Pharm Res Pract. 2017;6:79–89. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Paudyal V., Cadogan C., Fialová D., et al. Provision of clinical pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences of pharmacists from 16 European countries. Res Soc Adm Pharm. 2021;17(8):1507–1517. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Okuyan B., Bektay M.Y., Kingir Z.B., Save D., Sancar M. Community pharmacy cognitive services during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study of practices, precautions taken, perceived enablers and barriers and burnout. Int J Clin Pract. 2021;75(12) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hoti K., Jakupi A., Hetemi D., Raka D., Hughes J., Desselle S. Provision of community pharmacy services during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross sectional study of community pharmacists’ experiences with preventative measures and sources of information. Int J Clin Pharm. 2020;42(4):1197–1206. - PMC - PubMed
    1. O’Dwyer S. Trinity College Dublin; 2018. The Role of Community Pharmacists in Disease Prevention: A Study of the Delivery of Clinical Pharmacy Services in Community Pharmacy in Ireland.

LinkOut - more resources