Survey on the Status of Pharmacies Supporting Self-Care and Self-Medication in Tokyo

Abstract

 The essential functions of pharmacies in Japan involve supporting self-care and self-medication related to the maintenance and promotion of community residents’ health. This study surveyed the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s ‘Community Pharmacy Functional Information Report’ and the ‘Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Independent Published Item Report’ published in 2020, to understand the characteristics of pharmacies that promote self-care and self-medication and the factors that support them. All pharmacies in Tokyo were divided into three groups : health support pharmacies, pharmacies with pharmacists who had completed training for health support pharmacies (pharmacies that had completed training), and pharmacies that did not fall into either category (general pharmacies), and pharmacy functions were compared. The percentage of pharmacies that could provide various consultation services was significantly higher in health support pharmacies and pharmacies that had completed training than that in general pharmacies. This suggests that the presence of pharmacists who have completed the health support pharmacy training program is one of the factors that enhanced the consultation system. Additionally, pharmacies that promote self-care and self-medication have large stockpiles of both prescription and non-prescription drugs, indicating that they have a system in place to provide appropriate drugs to their users.