A Survey on the Current Status of Supporting Home Medication Use by Caregivers and of the Cooperation with Pharmacists

Narumi Sugihara; Miori Iwai; Miwako Kittaka; Makoto Seo; Masahiro Okada; Miyako Kaneko; Itsuko Yokota

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A Survey on the Current Status of Supporting Home Medication Use by Caregivers and of the Cooperation with Pharmacists

VernacularTitle:在宅医療における介護担当者による服薬支援の現状と薬剤師との連携に関する実態調査
Author: Narumi SUGIHARA ¹ ; Miori IWAI ¹ ; Miwako KITTAKA ¹ ; Makoto SEO ¹ ; Masahiro OKADA ² ; Miyako KANEKO ³ ; Itsuko YOKOTA ⁴
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1. Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuyama University
2. Onomichi Municipal Hospital
3. Takane Pharmacy
4. Kaneyoshi-chozai Pharmacy
Keywords: homecare; caregiver; medication therapy; community pharmacist; aging society
From:Japanese Journal of Social Pharmacy 2018;37(2):147-155
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: The questionnaire was distributed to caregivers regarding their management for home medication therapy. The purpose of this questionnaire was to clarify the role of community pharmacists in city “Z”, Hiroshima in supporting this activity. The results were compared among seven administrative zones. The percentage of caregivers who had routinely administered medications to dependent patients was 81%. Of these, the percentage of caregivers who had encountered difficulty in medication administration to dependent patients was 66%. Only 13% of these caregivers had sought assistance from pharmacists in dealing with issues they faced in the administration of medications. The percentage of caregivers who had easy access to pharmacists was 44%. The percentage of caregivers who received pharmacist-initiated information about patients was 23%. Among the 7 administrative zones in city “Z”, the 2 zones (H-zones) with the highest percentage of elderly citizens, 38.7%, were compared with the other 2 zones (L-zones) with the lowest percentage of elderly citizens, 25.7%, regarding medication management by caregivers. It was observed that the frequency of missing side effects or crushing medicines by caregivers was higher in H-zones as compared to L-zones. The results of this research suggest that close cooperation between pharmacists and caregivers improves the quality of medication therapy management. In an aging society, pharmacist intervention could be very beneficial to providing support and information that would improve the quality of patients’ medication therapy.