Utilization of a community pharmacy-operated national drug information call center in Finland.
BACKGROUND
Provision of drug information has been identified as a key strategy to prevent adverse drug events; however, provision of drug information in face-to-face consultations between patients and health professionals is often suboptimal.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to analyze and describe utilization of a community pharmacy-operated national drug information call center. The special focus was on calls concerning prescription drugs.


METHODS
Trained pharmacists (n=20) recorded data from all telephone calls made to the Helsinki University Pharmacy drug information call center over a 1-week period by using a structured data collection instrument. Data of this cross-sectional study were quantitatively content-analyzed to compute descriptive statistics.


RESULTS
Data were recorded for 2196 calls, 56% of which were drug-related. Of the drug-related calls, 79% were related to prescription drugs. The majority (83%) of these calls were therapeutic or pharmaceutical inquiries, with 26% concerning costs and reimbursements, 14% interactions, 14% dosages, and 11% adverse effects. Nervous system drugs (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical [ATC] classification N), anti-infectives (J), and musculoskeletal drugs (M) accounted for 20%, 18%, and 13% of the calls, respectively. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) (9% of the calls), antidepressants (6%), and penicillin (5%) were the most often inquired about ATC-subgroups. A majority (82%) of the callers were estimated to be between 20 and 60 years of age.


CONCLUSIONS
Consumers appear to have multiple unmet drug information needs. This may especially be the case for certain population groups, and in regard to nervous system drugs, anti-infectives and NSAID. Drug information call centers operated by community pharmacies could complement face-to-face information provided by health professionals.
Division of Social Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Viikinkaari 9 (PO Box 56), University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland. marika.pohjanoksa@helsinki.fi
Marika K
MK
Pohjanoksa-Mäntylä
Juha
J
Antila
Sari
S
Eerikäinen
Marianne
M
Enäkoski
Olli
O
Hannuksela
Kirsi
K
Pietilä
Marja
M
Airaksinen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013689:Telephone