The actual state of understanding and utilization of "home pharmacy" in residents and their regional differences

Abstract

To know the actual states of understanding and utilization of "home pharmacy" in regional residents and their regional differences, we performed questionnaire survey for the residents in Ueda-shi in Nagano and the Kita-tama area in Tokyo, where it was found in the past survey that the medical activities as "home pharmacy" in Ueda-shi was remark- ably higher than those in the Kita-tama area. By the present survey it was confirmed that the percentages of the person who keeps "home pharmacy" and of the person who fixes a pharmacy to get a filled prescription were remarkably higher in the residents of Ueda-shi than those of the Kita-tama area. The level of understanding of "home pharmacy" was also higher in the residents of Ueda-shi. These results suggested that the spread of "home pharmacy" is influenced by the ex- tent of activity of regional pharmacy and the regional society of pharmacists. © 2011 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.