UNLABELLED Community pharmacies may place condoms in locked displays or behind glass, thereby reducing access and consequent use. OBJECTIVE Quantify sales and theft of condoms when condoms were unlocked and removed from behind glass in grocery pharmacies. METHODS Design. In this pilot study, condom displays were unlocked in selected pharmacies for three months. Participants. Eight grocery p...

BACKGROUND Almost 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unwanted or mistimed. Notably, just over one-half of unintended pregnancies occurred when birth control was being used, suggesting inappropriate or poor use or contraceptive failure. About two-thirds of all women who are of reproductive age use contraceptives, and oral hormonal contraceptives remain the most common contraceptive meth...

INTRODUCTION The goal of the study was to identify perceived barriers to implementation of vaccination services encountered by independent and small-chain community pharmacies in an urban setting. METHODS Pharmacists in independent and small-chain pharmacies located in 29 Michigan ZIP codes were visited and asked to complete a 5- to 10-min semi-structured interview. RESULTS A total of 93 in...

BACKGROUND Utilization of private sector healthcare services among dual enrolled veterans with private healthcare insurance plans (PHIP) has not been well-characterized. Concurrent use of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and non-VHA pharmacies may increase risk for adverse outcomes. Thus, the objectives of this study were to determine the extent to which dual VHA-PHIP enrollees obtain medic...

OBJECTIVE To investigate equity in the geographical distribution of community pharmacies in South Africa and assess whether regulatory reforms have furthered such equity. METHODS Data on community pharmacies from the national department of health and the South African pharmacy council were used to analyse the change in community pharmacy ownership and density (number per 10,000 residents) bet...

INTRODUCTION In low- and middle-income countries such as India, private pharmacies play an important role in medical treatments, offering advice for common illnesses such as diarrhea and respiratory tract infections. There is a need to explore the details of the dispensing practices at the private pharmacies in low- and middle-income countries. METHODOLOGY The present study used simulated cli...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the proportion of pharmacies meeting licensing requirements and to identify factors associated with these pharmacies in urban Rawalpindi, Pakistan. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire survey conducted during July-September 2001, of 311 pharmacies selected from a drug company list of 506. SETTING Free-standing licensed and unlicensed pharmacies in urban Rawalpindi. S...

Low-dose oral contraceptives (OCs) were approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 1999. However, few women use low-dose OCs (married 1.9%, unmarried 0.7%). A survey of pharmacies was conducted to determine the current status of OC transactions. Of the 449 pharmacies randomly selected from each prefecture in Japan, 408 agreed to be interviewed. The survey results indicate...

Using econometric evidence, this article confirms that distribution of medicines online is split into two market segments of very diverse quality, and identifies the factors that drive quality and quality assurance in this activity. Unlike fraudulent, 'rogue,' websites, which offer scant guarantees and usually sell just a few medicines without prescription, online pharmacies offering insurance ...