Abstract
The Pharmacy Vision for Patients calls for all pharmacies to function as family pharmacies by 2025, and it is necessary for the public to understand the roles of pharmacies and pharmacists, and to be able to select a family pharmacy based on their evaluation. A study was conducted to investigate the image of pharmacists and the evaluation of pharmacists among the participants of a public event, and to analyze the relationship between the two to gain the insight necessary to broaden understanding of the family pharmacy and pharmacist. Three factors were extracted by factor analysis: “basic medication instruction,” “health support for local community,” and “work required to enhance interpersonal operations.” The results of the covariance structure analysis showed that the relationship between these factors and the overall evaluation differed depending on the frequency of pharmacy use. In the group with regular use of pharmacies, “basic medication instruction” and “work required to enhance interpersonal operations” were related to the overall evaluation, while in the group without regular use of pharmacies, only “basic medication instruction” was related to the overall evaluation. None of the groups showed any association with the overall evaluation of “health support for local community.” Toward the goal of having all pharmacies become family pharmacies, it is necessary to accelerate specific efforts to ensure that the health support function, as well as the expertise and functions of pharmacists and pharmacies, are understood and evaluated in the community regardless of the frequency of pharmacy use.
