Current Issue : April-June Volume : 2025 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
Despite technological advancements, healthcare professionals must actively prioritize patient safety. Reporting adverse drug reactions is a critical aspect of this responsibility, and the most accessible healthcare providers, community pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians play a key role. Therefore, this study assessed their knowledge and practices regarding adverse drug reaction reporting in Croatia. A total of 180 participants were included. Pharmacists demonstrated significantly better knowledge than technicians (94.78 vs. 73.97, p = 0.024). Chronic medication users also showed greater understanding compared to non-users (104.96 vs. 85.39, p = 0.021). Knowledge improved with the number of adverse drug reactions reported, and most participants (72.78%) had reported adverse drug reactions. Pharmacists were 83.60% more likely to report adverse drug reactions than technicians (p < 0.001). These findings reveal a gap in pharmacy technicians’ integration into pharmacovigilance, underscoring a need to strengthen their role in adverse drug reaction reporting and patient safety....
While previous research has linked physical activity (PA) with lower prescription medication consumption, limited evidence has investigated sedentary time (ST) as a major contributor to medication use, despite ST’s known association with chronic disease and mortality risk, even when PA volume is considered. This study aimed to examine the independent associations between objectively measured ST, patterns of sedentary bouts, and self-reported prescription medication use among adults ≥25 years of age. Thirty-two participants reported the number and type of medications they were currently prescribed and wore an accelerometer continuously on their hip for seven days to detect their ST. Poisson regression analysis was used to assess how average daily ST, sedentary bout frequency, and sedentary bout duration influenced medication use. The results revealed a significant association between greater ST and higher medication consumption. Specifically, each additional hour of ST per day, each sedentary bout, and each one-minute increase in bout duration were linked to a 66% (PR 1.66; 95% CI 1.25–2.19; p < 0.001), 36% (PR 1.36; 95% CI 1.12–1.64; p < 0.01), and 9% (PR 1.09; 95% CI 1.03–1.16; p < 0.01) higher prevalence of prescription medications, respectively. These findings suggest that higher ST is associated with a greater prevalence of using prescription medications in adults....
Multimorbidity and polypharmacy are prevalent among Long-Term Care (LTC) users. Older people, who most use LTC services, are more prone to drug-related problems, which polypharmacy aggravates. Deprescribing is a key intervention to address polypharmacy and inappropriate medication. Evidence shows that pharmacists’ expertise in medicines and their growing involvement in clinical-oriented activities have proven to play an essential role across many healthcare settings, including LTC. Thus, this study aimed to identify and assess LTC pharmacist-mediated deprescribing. A systematic review was undertaken following the PRISMA checklist, using three literature databases (PubMed, Scopus, andWeb of Knowledge). A set of 18 keywords, divided into three domains (professional, type of care, and type of setting), were combined into search equations. The studies selected were assessed through the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria out of 288 initial hits. Pharmacistmediated deprescribing was divided into specific (targeted to a medicine group) and nonspecific. Half of the studies were graded as low quality (53%). In total, the studies enrolled 6928 patients and 45 pharmacists. The ATC groups A, C, M, and N, as well as medicines with anticholinergic properties, were the most addressed medicines groups. Acceptance rates of pharmacists’ recommendations ranged between 30% and 100%. Generically, the number of medicines was reduced after the intervention. Mixed results were found for falls and quality of life outcomes. Cost savings associated with the interventions ranged from neutral to as high as 3800 €/patient/year. Barriers to deprescribing were mainly linked to patients’ or family members’ refusal to change. In conclusion, pharmacist-mediated deprescribing seems feasible in LTC. The studies’ methodological heterogeneity hampers robust comparisons and conclusions. The medicine groups targeted by deprescribing can help tailor interventions to optimize the use of medicines in LTC. A detailed understanding of barriers and enablers to deprescribing would support developing and implementing these interventions....
Pharmacists have been recognized as the most accessible healthcare professionals, and research has been carried out on expanded pharmacy services they could provide. Additional pharmacy services are a cost-effective way to prevent medication errors, reduce the number of drug-related problems, and prevent chronic disease progression. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate pharmacy service users’ views of expanded pharmacy services in Croatia. This study included 745 participants. Patients who have a healthcare professional in their family more frequently knew of the existence of e-health records and the option to share it with their pharmacists (134, 56.3% vs. 229, 45.2%, p = 0.005), while persons that have chronic illness more frequently visit the same pharmacy (176, 77.9% vs. 178, 34.3%, p < 0.001). Participants are confident that pharmacists can provide screening services and education on inhaler usage; however, only around 60% agreed that pharmacists can independently lead therapy adjustment, medication substitution, or monitor therapy based on test results. Our findings should be supported with projects evaluating the costeffectiveness of such services as they would be accepted by a greater number of pharmacy service users if covered by the national health insurer....
Pharmacists have often been viewed as the last line of defence against prescription errors in traditional care models. Although a large number of chronic care patients are using telehealth services to increase their access to continuous care, researchers have yet to investigate prescription safety in such settings in Australia. The absence of this literature is particularly concerning in the context of the Australian Government’s admission in a 2024 report that the national health system has not adequately addressed theWorld Health Organization’s ‘Medication without harm’ objective. One of the report’s key findings was that knowledge on digital direct-to-consumer services is insufficient. A defining feature of some of these services is their unbundling of the pharmacy component, which logically increases the risk for prescription errors. This study analyzed the frequency of which the Cloud pharmacy network intercepted prescription errors in an unbundled digital sexual dysfunction service for men. Investigators found that Cloud pharmacists were responsible for intercepting 22 (5.31%) the 414 prescribing errors observed in the Pilot Australia service in 2023, including 12 (8.05%) of the 149 prescription errors for premature ejaculation (PE) patients and 10 (3.77%) of the 265 errors for erectile dysfunction (ED) patients. Seven of the errors intercepted by Cloud pharmacists were of high or medium severity, including four drug contraindications, two cases of inadequate patient history reviews, and one case of inadequate counselling. This study also appears to be the first to provide digital prescribing error rate data in an Australian sexual healthcare setting, observing an error rate of 0.86% from 30,649 ED prescriptions, 1.13% from the 13,154 PE prescriptions, and a total prescription error rate of 0.95% (414 out of 43,792 prescriptions). These findings demonstrate the vital role of pharmacists in intercepting prescribing errors in unbundled telehealth services. Possible implications of these findings include the allocation of additional resources across the pharmacy sector and the establishment of regulatory safety standards for unbundled telehealth services....
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