title: Safeguarding older adults from inappropriate over-the-counter medications: the role of community pharmacists.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To elicit the thought process or mental model that community pharmacists use when making recommendations on over-the-counter (OTC) medications to older adults and to elicit the current practices of community pharmacists in providing information, advice, and counseling to older adults about potentially inappropriate OTC medications.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three separate focus groups with pharmacists were conducted with 5 to 8 pharmacists per group. A vignette about an elderly woman seeking an OTC sleep aid was used to elicit information that pharmacists seek to establish when making a recommendation. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes using the initial and focused coding methods of grounded theory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Community pharmacists' mental models were characterized by 2 similarities: a similarity in what community pharmacists seek to establish about patients and a similarity in when community pharmacists seek to establish it--the sequence in which they try to learn key details about patients. It was identified that pharmacists gather specific information about the patient's medication profile, health conditions, characteristics of the problem, and past treatments in order to make a recommendation. Community pharmacists recommended behavioral modifications and seeing their physician prior to recommending an OTC sleep aid, primarily due to medication safety concerns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pharmacists can play a key role in assisting older adults to select and use OTC medications.
authors.affiliation: Social & Administrative Sciences Division, University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Pharmacy. mchui@pharmacy.wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Michelle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Chui
authors.affiliation: Social & Administrative Sciences Division, University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Pharmacy.
authors.forename: Jamie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Practice Division, University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Pharmacy.
authors.forename: Beth A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin Survey Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison.
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Croes
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Joshua M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Thorpe
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004366:Nonprescription Drugs
keywords: Community pharmacy; Medication counseling; Medication safety; Older adult; Over the counter medication