The pharmacy is not just any shop. For this reason, for some years, Active Citizenship dedicates research on their “state of health” and on the evolution of the services that are provided within them. We have thus reached the sixth edition of Pharmacy Reportin collaboration with Federfarmato which the promoters added the campaign this year Woman’s heart in the pharmacy.
Equivalent drugs are good
These are some of the most significant numbers that emerged from the Report this year. Half of our fellow citizens are “loyal” to their pharmacy and always choose the same one because of the relationship of trust. The level of loyalty is even more solid (53.3% versus 46.2%) among people suffering from chronic pathologies. The latter, in particular, rely on any pharmacy in only 13.1% of cases. Compared to the use of drugs, more than one in three of the citizens interviewed (36.5%) declare that they prefer equivalent drugs. In particular, patients with chronic pathologies choose them (43.4% compared to 31.4%). 84% of the people interviewed declared that in the last 12 months they had used equivalent drugs, a percentage which rises to 91.3% in patients with chronic pathologies; among people without chronic pathologies, who still use drugs, this percentage stops at 74.6%.
Donne
Countryside Woman’s heart in the pharmacy involved, instead, through a cardiovascular risk assessment questionnaire and an electrocardiogram with telemedicine services, over 1,500 women aged 40 and over in three Italian regions. Based on 22 parameters taken into consideration, including previous pathologies and lifestyles, for one in five women, the cardiovascular risk was high (17.3%) or very high (3.6%). Among the women who declared they were on antihypertensive therapy (30.5%), high blood pressure values were found in 38.6% of cases and medium-high values in 18.7% of cases; in fact, in over half of the women already on therapy, the blood pressure values deviate from normal parameters.
Prevention and screening
«We consider the results encouraging and very significant Woman’s heart in the pharmacy. This is a double challenge: on the one hand, in terms of preventing cardiovascular diseases, especially among women who until a few decades ago were considered to be less at risk than men, while today studies tell us that, especially after menopause, the incidence of even serious cardiovascular events increases Unfortunately; on the other hand, on the need to extend, also through the pharmacy network, screening to the entire population, to intercept those who are not fully aware of the risk factors connected to the various pathologies”, observes Anna Lisa Mandorinogeneral secretary of Cittadinanzattiva.
Growing services
Returning to the data in the Report, the services most offered in pharmacies are: parameter monitoring (blood pressure measurement: 97.7%; weight measurement: 83.2%); booking of medicines and other products to be collected (88.5%); first-instance tests/analysis such as blood sugar (81.6%), cholesterol (78.4%), triglycerides (73%) tests; Single booking center – Cup (77.4%); telemedicine (65.5%). As far as citizens are concerned, the services most used are the booking of medicines and other products to be collected from the pharmacy (86.5%), the Covid-19 swab (76.8%), the monitoring of parameters (46.3 %), Cup (38.7%) and galenic preparations 34%).
Telemedicine is good
«This year, telemedicine emerges among the most appreciated services, useful for overcoming inequalities in access to services in the area and lightening the load on public structures. Telemedicine is also essential for prevention purposes, especially in the cardiovascular field, and implements the prevention and screening activities already carried out in the pharmacy. On the antimicrobial-resistance front, the pharmacy intervenes not only with the administration of swabs, but also with training and information for citizens”, observes the president of Federfarma Nazionale, Marco Cossolo.
As for the gender medicine44% of pharmacies are committed to the topic: half of the citizens involved in prevention and screening campaigns by pharmacies confirm this, but there remains 22.7% of people who do not have full awareness of the topic. For 90.6% of citizens, the pharmacy is the suitable context for carrying out this type of initiative. As many as 71.8% of pharmacies declared that in the last 12 months they had carried out screening campaigns to identify subjects at risk: specifically, for oncological pathologies (in 78.9% of pharmacies), chronic and cardiovascular pathologies (in 35% of pharmacies). The other activities carried out in this direction are mainly the delivery of information material (71.9%), the execution of diagnostic tests/examinations through telemedicine (60.7%), the measurement of vital parameters (50.0%) and filling out questionnaires (47.5%).
Sustainable pharmacies
Italian pharmacists aware of their social role, with consultancy and information services on a healthy lifestyle (in 53.9% of pharmacies), participation in community initiatives to promote health and well-being (36.9%), participation in initiatives promoted by civic and patient associations (21.6%). On environmental aspects and sustainability, the main types of practices or initiatives implemented by pharmacies are: reduction of energy consumption (76.7%); recycling or waste reduction initiatives (65.5%); reduction in paper use (64.0%); use of recyclable or biodegradable packaging (44.9%).
Methodology
The data collection, in which they participated 1,500 pharmacies and 4 thousand citizens (42.6% of them are affected by at least one chronic pathology), took place from July to September 2023. Among the population involved, women prevail by far (72.5%), while the age groups most represented they are that of adults aged 31 to 50 and the one immediately after (51/63 years). Just over a third of the pharmacists interviewed (34.7%) indicated that their pharmacy is located in a rural area (Rural Pharmacy). Of these, 80% are located in a municipality with less than 3000 inhabitants.
Opening, the Minister of Health Schillaci at the presentation of the Pharmacy Report, photo from the Cittadinanzattiva press office