International Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy

Pharmacists’ Attitudes towards Three Models of Expanded Access to Hormonal Contraception in Pharmacies
Craig A. H. Richard, Hillary Kinzey, Kelly Masters

Abstract
The objectives of this study were to survey pharmacists about their attitudes to three models for expanding access to several types of hormonal contraceptives, their confidence in screening for contraindications to hormonal contraception, and their confidence in patients’ self-screening for contraindications to hormonal contraceptives. Surveys were distributed to 52 pharmacists to assess agreement or disagreement about three expanded access models for different forms of hormonal contraception and confidence of screening. The response rate of the survey was 63%. About 54% of the pharmacists did not support pharmacist-prescribed hormonal contraception, although about 60% agreed that they could properly screen for contraindications. About 71% did not support behind-the-counter access and about 95% did not support over-the-counter access to hormonal contraceptives. Over 80% of the pharmacists did not agree that patients could properly self-screen for contraindications. Pharmacists did not show any increased support for extending access to progestin-only contraceptives compared to estrogen-containing contraceptives. The majority of the pharmacists did not support any of the expanded access models for the different forms of hormonal contraceptives and did not show increased support for progestin-only contraceptives. This is the first paper to compare pharmacists’ attitudes about these three models for expanding access to hormonal contraceptives.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijmp.v3n1a2