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Electronic Letters to:

Quality of care and patient satisfaction:
Anne Walker, Margaret Watson, Jeremy Grimshaw, and Christine Bond
Applying the theory of planned behaviour to pharmacists' beliefs and intentions about the treatment of vaginal candidiasis with non-prescription medicines
Fam. Pract. 2004; 21: 670-676 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read eLetter] Community pharmacists and the emergency contraceptive pill
Justin A Fegredo, Pippa Oakeshott   (2 August 2005)

Community pharmacists and the emergency contraceptive pill 2 August 2005
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Justin A Fegredo,
Second Year Medical Student
Department of Community Health Sciences, St George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE,
Pippa Oakeshott

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Re: Community pharmacists and the emergency contraceptive pill

Dear Sir,

In their recent study, Walker and colleagues found that pharmacists felt able to recommend anti-fungals to women with symptoms of vaginal candidiasis.(1) In the UK, since 1999, women have also been able to purchase the Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP) from pharmacists. In December ’05, we conducted a small pilot questionnaire survey over a period of two months in order to investigate the proportion of women who obtained the ECP free on prescription versus bought over-the-counter (OTC), from South London pharmacies.

We contacted 21 pharmacists in SW London of which 6 were willing to participate in the study. The pharmacists were requested to distribute an information sheet and questionnaire to consecutive women requesting the ECP. The questionnaire inquired as to whether the women were purchasing the ECP OTC or obtaining it free on prescription, and their reasons for this. It also asked about demographic data (age, ethnicity, previous use of ECP, employment status) and intention of future use. Completed questionnaires were placed in sealed envelopes and retained by the pharmacists for collection by JF on a fortnightly basis. Women under the age of 16 and women who did not speak English were excluded from the study. Data from the questionnaires were entered and analysed using SPSS v12.0.

Of the 70 questionnaires distributed to the pharmacists, 31 were returned completed, by two months. The mean age of respondents was 24 years (range 16-34). Subjects described their ethnicity as White 68%, Black 23%, Asian 7% and other ethnic group 2%. 14 women (45%) said they were employed. 18 (58%) of the women had bought the ECP OTC, the remainder obtained it on prescription (62% from their GP, 23% from a family planning clinic and 15% from an Accident and Emergency department). Of those who were employed, 10/14 (71%) bought the ECP OTC compared with 5/13 (38%) of those who were not employed. This difference was not statistically significant, although the small size of the sample must be acknowledged.

Women purchased the ECP OTC because it is fast, convenient and easy to obtain. This applies particularly at weekends when most likely to be required, and when family planning clinics or GPs are generally closed. Like Walker and colleagues, our study highlights the important role of pharmacists in promoting sexual health.

References:

1. Walker AE, Watson M, Grimshaw JM, Bond C. Applying the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to treatment of vaginal candidiasis in community pharmacies. Family Practice 2004;21:670-676.

Conflict of Interest:

None declared