Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services: a quantitative retrospective study.
Sex Transm Infect
; 97(2): 126-133, 2021 03.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32817275
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To explore the utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in order to optimise delivery and identify barriers to access.METHODS:
The health provider Umbrella offers six SRHS from over 120 pharmacies in Birmingham (England). In this retrospective study, data collected between August 2015 and August 2018 were used to analyse uptake, user characteristics and attendance patterns according to day of the week.RESULTS:
A total of 60 498 requests for a pharmacy service were included in the analysis. Emergency contraception (50.4%), condoms (33.1%) and STI self-sampling kits (9.6%) accounted for more than 90% of all requests. A lower uptake of services was observed for the contraceptive injection (0.6%), oral contraception (5.4%) and chlamydia treatment (1.0%). Services were most likely to be requested by those self-identifying as female (85.6%), and those aged 16-24 years (53.8%). Based on available ethnicity data (n=54 668), most requests for a service were made by White/White British individuals (43.4%) and Asian/Asian British people (23.1%). The largest number of services were delivered on Mondays (20.9%) and the lowest on Sundays (5.0%). A high proportion of requests for services on Saturdays (57.0%), Sundays (67.6%) and Mondays (54.4%) were made by females presenting for emergency contraception.CONCLUSION:
The evaluation of healthcare utilisation is important to help refine and optimise the delivery of services. However, information relating to pharmacy-based SRHS is scarce and often limited to a single type of service provision. Overall, a wide range of pharmacy-based services were accessed by a diverse range of people, suggesting that pharmacies are a suitable provider of many SRHS. However, the routinely collected data analysed in the study had several limitations restricting the analysis. Sexual health providers should ensure they collect data which are as comprehensive as is possible in order to help understand the utilisation of services.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Assistência Farmacêutica
/
Aceitação pelo Paciente de Cuidados de Saúde
/
Serviços de Saúde Reprodutiva
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sex Transm Infect
Assunto da revista:
DOENCAS SEXUALMENTE TRANSMISSIVEIS
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Reino Unido