TY  - JOUR
T1  - Evaluating Community Pharmacy Self-Medication Consultations: Practice Quality, Patient-Reported Outcomes, and Satisfaction
A1  - Mikael Korhonen
A1  - Sanna L. Virtanen
JF  - Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
JO  - Ann Pharm Pract Pharmacother
SN  - 3062-4436
Y1  - 2025
VL  - 5
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/Bjh1w5IlMW
SP  - 222
EP  - 232
N2  - Community pharmacy teams (CPTs) play a well-recognized role in supporting self-medication practices, thereby promoting the safe and appropriate use of non-prescription medicines. This study sought to characterize CPTs’ performance during self-medication consultations, as well as client-reported outcomes and satisfaction. An additional objective was to develop an explanatory model to better understand the factors influencing client satisfaction with this service. A descriptive, cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted. Data were obtained from a purposive sample of pharmacy clients recruited from six community pharmacies in Portugal. CPTs followed a structured self-medication consultation process based on 11 quality criteria, including five related to case assessment and six to counselling. Scores for evaluation, counselling, and overall consultation quality were calculated. Client-reported outcomes and satisfaction were collected through a follow-up telephone interview. In addition to descriptive analyses, linear regression was used to examine associations between multiple independent variables and clients’ overall satisfaction. Dispensing focused primarily on product selection was more common among clients with lower educational attainment. Overall adherence by CPTs to the predefined quality criteria was high, reaching 93.95% of the maximum possible score, with the most frequently omitted criterion being the assessment of concurrent medication use. The majority of clients (93%) reported symptom improvement following the consultation. Mean client satisfaction was high, with a score of 4.70 out of 5. Pharmacy loyalty, consultation evaluation score, and female sex were the variables most strongly associated with overall satisfaction. Client-reported outcomes and satisfaction with self-medication consultations were generally positive. Satisfaction appears to be closely linked to the quality of the consultation, particularly the assessment component, highlighting the evolving clinical role of pharmacists. Further research with a larger sample is needed to validate these findings.
UR  - https://galaxypub.co/article/evaluating-community-pharmacy-self-medication-consultations-practice-quality-patient-reported-outc-zovq2zveyvqxgpg
ER  -