Abstract
Objective: For pharmacists to select a suitable auxiliary device for eye drop administration for patients who have difficulty in applying eye drops, the pharmacists need to know the characteristics and level of difficulty of using each device.
Methods: Thus, we compared the characteristics of New Rakuraku Tengan, Rakuraku Tengan III, and an eye-drop self-help device and also conducted a survey involving 40 healthy volunteers on each device’s accessibility and suitability for people with motor disabilities.
Results: New Rakuraku Tengan received the highest score for “usage was able to easily understand” (70.0% of the respondents answered positively) and “suitability for poor-sighted people” (65.0%). Rakuraku Tengan III received the highest score for the “effectiveness of photos and illustrations in the manual” (77.5%), but was evaluated to be difficult to use. The eye-drop self-help device received the highest score for “suitability for people with difficulty raising their shoulders and arms” (75.0%).
Results: Thus, we observed the need for pharmacists to have thorough knowledge of the products in order to recommend suitable auxiliary devices for eye drop administration for each patient.
