Pharmacy consultation and over-the-counter medication purchasing outcomes

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Abstract
A demonstration project was conducted within 23 community pharmacies located throughout the state of Washington to: (1) assess the effects of pharmacy consultation on over-the-counter (OTC) medication purchasing decisions and costs, (2) to identify factors influencing those intending to purchase a brand name medication to change to a generic or private label product, or to a different brand name product, and (3) to quantify prevented adverse medication outcomes. Pharmacy students in their final year of training provided consultation to 745 consumers intending to purchase an OTC product. The consultations averaged 4.6 min in length, and resulted in 42.6% of consumers changing their intended purchase. These changes reduced OTC expenditures by an average of US $1.53 per customer, primarily as a result of movement from brand name products to lower priced generic or private label equivalents. Nearly 8% of consumers made no purchase after consultation, and 4.3% were referred to a physician. Logistic regression analysis identified gender of the consultant being female (odds ratio = 3.87, 95% CI = 1.58-9.45), and an increasing length of consultation (odds ratio = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.08-1.57) as being significant factors influencing consumers to change their final purchase from a brand name OTC product to a generic or private label, or to a different brand name product. Potential adverse outcomes (disease-medication interaction; medication-medication interaction; additive side-effects; or duplication in therapeutic category) were prevented in 7.1% of the study population. This study documents consumer need for pharmacy consultation in order to optimize both the therapeutic appropriateness of, and pharmaceutical expenditures for OTC medication.