[Functional review of drugstores in contraceptive distribution: Cheju area (author's transl)].

PIP: There are 3 different kinds of drugstores in Korea: drugstores with a licensed pharmacist, drugstores which are opened in the limited area and are not allowed to compound medicines (druggist), and drugstores which are opened in limited areas and are not authorized to compound medicines but are only allowed to sell a limited list of medicines (restricted drug dealer). There is no doubt that those pharmacists, druggists, and restricted drug dealers are functionally serving as health counselors to their community. Accordingly, they have a sort of potential leadership among the community people in the field on contraception. Both in functional and structural aspects, the drugstore is similar to other stores in that it is easily accessible. In fact, it is very easy to meet pharmacists to ask for health consultations while it is very difficult to request a physician's consultation without charge. A survey of drugstores in the Cheju area was carried out to review their up-to-date functional status for contraceptive distribution. Interviews were conducted by trained surveyors with 83 pharmacists, 27 druggists, and 18 restricted drug dealers in September 1978 (seen in tabular form). 39% of the respondents felt that contraceptive councelling was difficult because of a lack of knowledge, 71.9% felt that they needed training, while 68.8% were willing to participate in a family planning training course if it were arranged for them (in tabular form). Their interest in contraceptive distribution activities should be considered in future developments of Korean family planning programs. 3 kinds of contraceptives are dealt with in more than 74.8% of the drugstores while 7.9% of the drugstores did not deal with contraceptives. No drugstore in Cheju City did not deal with contraceptives; however 16.7% in Buk-gun and 29.2% in Nam-gun did not. The total number of contraceptive users through drugstores is estimated at 3456 or an average of 36 in each drugstore in the Cheju-do area. As shown in tabular form, the monthly average sale of contraceptives between January and August 1978 is 5277 cycles of orals, 1979 dozen condoms, 1040 tubes of spermicide, and 126 vials of injectables. (Author's modified)^ieng