Sally A. Huston

Using focus groups to inform pharmacy research

BACKGROUND Focus groups are a powerful research tool for collecting qualitative information across many contexts. The focus group offers pharmacy researchers benefits that support many of the important lines of investigation at the forefront of contemporary pharmacy-based research, particularly within the areas of patient compliance/concordance, customer behavior, patient-provider collaboration, health literacy research, and disease management. This article introduces the focus group as a research method that offers powerful investigative potential to researchers who are attempting to understand human-based phenomena. OBJECTIVES To provide sufficient background, examples, and how to information to enable a pharmacy researcher to include focus group methodologies in their initial design decisions, and provide guidance to additional resources necessary for successful implementation of this powerful qualitative approach. METHODS The article is organized into sections describing what a focus group is and what it can be used for; the unique benefits and drawbacks of using focus group methodology; organization and planning considerations including participant and recruitment considerations; and sampling strategies, session and question development, practical details of session management, and follow-up activities, including data analysis. RESULTS/CONCLUSION Although often considered quick and easy focus groups require thoughtful consideration of need and purpose, considerable planning, and effort to succeed. Because of the unique insight that can be gained, their flexibility, and their ability to mesh with other methods, focus group is gaining currency as an important research tool within health care.

Women's Trust in and Use of Information Sources in the Treatment of Menopausal Symptoms

BACKGROUND Frequent shifts in expert opinion over whether or not women should use hormone therapy (HT) or another menopausal treatment have left women in a difficult position; they must determine where they can obtain trustworthy menopause information. In this study, conducted 10-12 months after the Womens Health Initiative study first published results, we identified sources women use for information about menopause treatments, identified how trust-related dimensions (trustworthiness, knowledge, helpfulness, bias, and vested interest) influenced use of these sources, and determined how these trust dimensions varied with womens HT use status. METHODS A total of 765 women >45 and <61 years of age from a Midwestern managed care organization responded to a survey. Trust dimensions regarding family, friends, physicians, pharmacists, other health care providers (HCP), and various media as sources of menopause information, and use of these sources for menopause information were examined. RESULTS Women ranked physicians significantly higher than pharmacists and other HCP for trustworthiness, helpfulness, and knowledgeability. Perceived bias, knowledgeability, and helpfulness showed the strongest influence on trust in physician as well as nonpharmacist HCP. Menopause stage, HT use status, and helpfulness influenced use of physician for information. Helpfulness and knowledgeability influenced trust in the pharmacist, whereas actual use was predicated on having used HT, trust, and helpfulness. CONCLUSIONS Women who had never used HT trusted HCP less. HCP have important roles in providing menopause information to perimenopausal women. HCP may need to reach out and initiate these important discussions with their patients.

Patients’ intentions to seek medication information from pharmacists

OBJECTIVES To determine whether perceived medication use knowledge held and/or needed influenced intention to seek information from pharmacists, whether an information-intention relationship held after accounting for other variables, and whether asking medication use knowledge questions increased pharmacist information-seeking intention. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING United States during July 2012. PARTICIPANTS Qualtrics national panel members 21 years or older obtaining a new chronic medication within previous 30 days. INTERVENTION Internet-administered survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Medication information-seeking intention, medication knowledge held and needed, and pharmacist medication information-seeking intention. RESULTS Although knowledge held and needed were initially significant, they became nonsignificant after adding affective and evaluative attitudes, perceived control, and risk. The final best-fitting model explained 21% of variance in pharmacist information-seeking intention. Patient intentions to seek information from pharmacists increased significantly after being asked medication use knowledge questions. CONCLUSION Perceptions of medication risk, attitudes, and information-seeking control predict pharmacist information-seeking intention and offer pharmacists an opportunity to market information services.

Expanding Consumer Medication Access The Time Is Now

The US FDA is proposing an expanded over-the-counter (OTC) medication policy to improve patient access to medications under the supervision of a pharmacist. Higher levels of medication access via multiple medication categories are common in other industrialized nations. Pharmacists are well trained and widely available. Expanding medication access can help alleviate the physician shortage by directing patients with appropriate health conditions that can be managed with medication to community pharmacists. Examples include migraine headaches and seasonal allergies, which have a significant impact on patients’ quality of life and work productivity. Clinically relevant medications and dosages should be selected. Medication use guidelines should not be so restrictive as to defeat the policy intent. The proposed FDA policy is a long-overdue change that will help optimize available health personnel resources for patient care.

U.S. publication trends in social and administrative pharmacy: Implications for promotion and tenure

BACKGROUND There is no consensus on the preferred approach to assess journal quality. Procedures previously used include journal acceptance or rejection policies, impact factors, number of subscribers, citation counts, whether the articles were refereed or not, and journals cited in books within the discipline. This study built on the work of previous authors by using a novel approach to assess journal quality in social and administrative pharmacy (SAdP). OBJECTIVES To determine U.S. SAdP faculty perceptions of prestigious journals for their research, SAdP faculty perceptions of prestigious journals by their promotion and tenure (P&T) committees, and current research trends in SAdP. METHODS A census of U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy was conducted using an e-mailed survey and an open-ended approach requiring respondents to list their preferred journals. RESULTS Seventy-nine SAdP faculty reported that the 5 most prestigious journals were JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, Health Services Research, and Medical Care. These journals were selected because respondents wished to seek broad readership. CONCLUSIONS Results of this study can be used as a guide by U.S. SAdP faculty and P&T committees to assess the quality of publications by pharmacy administration faculty with the caveat being that pharmacy versus nonpharmacy journals will be chosen based on the fit of the article with the audience.