OBJECTIVES: To assess pharmacists' provision of antidepressant information and to examine the effect of patient ethnicity and language skills on pharmacists' provision of information and patient education. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, randomized, between-subjects study. SETTING: Wisconsin, from September to November 2008. PARTICIPANTS: 540 community pharmacists. INTERVENTION: Participants were exposed to one of three vignettes describing a patient coming into the pharmacy for an initial dispensation of an antidepressant. Vignettes varied according to patient ethnicity (white or Hispanic) and language spoken (English or Spanish). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Respondents' information and education messages given to patients about antidepressants and whether Hispanic patient ethnicity and English language ability reduced pharmacists' communication about antidepressants. RESULTS: A majority of participants would provide information regarding the medication's name (93.3%) and dosage schedule (92.8%). Many pharmacists also reported that they would tell the patient to take the medication on a daily basis (92.6%) and that it takes 2 to 4 weeks for the medication to have a noticeable effect (87.8%). Multivariate models showed that pharmacists would provide significantly less information (β = -0.24 [95% CI -0.31 to -0.17]) and education messages (-0.17 [-0.24 to -0.09]) to Spanish-speaking patients. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that Spanish-speaking patients may face disparities in the level of care received from community pharmacists. Interventions should be available to enhance pharmacists' communication with Spanish-speaking patients in an effort to facilitate safe and effective medication use.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVES: To assess pharmacists' provision of antidepressant information and to examine the effect of patient ethnicity and language skills on pharmacists' provision of information and patient education. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, randomized, between-subjects study. SETTING: Wisconsin, from September to November 2008. PARTICIPANTS: 540 community pharmacists. INTERVENTION: Participants were exposed to one of three vignettes describing a patient coming into the pharmacy for an initial dispensation of an antidepressant. Vignettes varied according to patient ethnicity (white or Hispanic) and language spoken (English or Spanish). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Respondents' information and education messages given to patients about antidepressants and whether Hispanic patient ethnicity and English language ability reduced pharmacists' communication about antidepressants. RESULTS: A majority of participants would provide information regarding the medication's name (93.3%) and dosage schedule (92.8%). Many pharmacists also reported that they would tell the patient to take the medication on a daily basis (92.6%) and that it takes 2 to 4 weeks for the medication to have a noticeable effect (87.8%). Multivariate models showed that pharmacists would provide significantly less information (β = -0.24 [95% CI -0.31 to -0.17]) and education messages (-0.17 [-0.24 to -0.09]) to Spanish-speaking patients. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that Spanish-speaking patients may face disparities in the level of care received from community pharmacists. Interventions should be available to enhance pharmacists' communication with Spanish-speaking patients in an effort to facilitate safe and effective medication use.