Abstract
A survey was conducted at five insurance pharmacies for four months to clarify how frequently patients taking antihypertensives brought the drug profile book to their pharmacy; how frequently they used stickers for the profile book; and the correlated factors thereof. Survey forms were distributed to patients taking antihypertensives. The main questions were: (1) Patient attributes, (2) Frequency of bringing the profile book to their pharmacy, (3) Frequency of using the stickers, (4) Whether the respondents knew the role of the profile book, (5) Where they learned about the role of the profile book, (6) What kinds of advantages they could identify about using the profile book, (7) Whether they thought the profile book was useful to them (sense of utility), and (8) The number of times they brought their profile book and used the stickers within the latest five pharmacy visits. Analysis of the data of 245 patients revealed correlations between three patient attributes, ie, female, later-stage seniors, and multiple combination, and frequency of bringing the profile book and frequency of using the stickers. Additionally, patients who had a stronger sense of the utility of the profile book and/or thought the profile book was more advantageous had a higher frequency of bringing the profile book and using the stickers. This indicates that pharmacists will need to provide a comprehensible explanation of the role and advantages of the profile book especially to patients who are male, younger than later-stage seniors, and who take three and under medications, in order to enlighten them further.
