National Survey of Pharmacists About Coronary Heart Disease, Hypercholesterolemia, Nonprescription Statin Therapy, and Pharmacists' Services

摘要

Objective: To determine the beliefs and attitudes of pharmacists about the significance of high blood cholesterol, coronary heart disease (CHD), nonpre-scription statin therapy for patients at moderate risk for CHD, and their role in support of cholesterol-lowering treatments in patients. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Nationwide sample of licensed pharmacists in ambulatory practice in the United States drawn randomly from databases of the American Pharmacists Association. Participants: 104 independent pharmacists and 169 chain pharmacists. Intervention: Web-based survey. Main Outcome Measure: Respondents' indication of strong agreement with questionnaire statements (selecting 8, 9, or 10 on a 10-point scale). Results: The survey found that 75% and 61% of pharmacists believed strongly that CHD and high blood cholesterol levels, respectively, are significant health problems facing Americans, and 60% believed that not enough is currently being done to reduce this risk. Pharmacists indicated that they very regularly advised patients about prescription and nonprescription treatments (75%) and encouraged adherence to them (78%); a smaller but substantial proportion regularly monitored patient response to prescription (33%) and nonprescription therapies (15%) and provided point-of-care cholesterol testing (7%). The survey also revealed that the majority of pharmacists (68%) would support consumers interested in purchasing a nonprescription statin product and 82% believed such a product would be more effective than currently available cholesterol-lowering dietary supplements. Pharmacists were concerned that patients pursuing nonprescription statins might discontinue their prescription cholesterol-lowering medications (79%), experience adverse effects (79%), and not be able to self-manage their use of a nonprescription statin product (78%). Conclusion: Community pharmacist members of APhA believe that CHD and cholesterol are important problems facing many people, routinely provide services that support patients who wish to self-administer nonprescription therapies, and would be interested in supporting consumers who wish to carry out therapy with a nonprescription statin.