THE ASSOCIATION OF PRESCRIPTION STATUS, PATIENT AGE, PATIENT GENDER, AND PATIENT QUESTION ASKING BEHAVIOR WITH THE CONTENT OF PHARMACIST-PATIENT COMMUNICATION

Purpose and Methods. Data from 358 pharmacist-patient encounters in 12 community pharmacies were used to investigate the association of pres cription status, patient age, patient gender and patient question aski ng with the content of pharmacist-patient communication. Results, Ther e was an association between prescription status and the provision of five types of information, patient age and gender were associated with the provision of the same two types of information, and patient quest ion asking was associated with the provision of eight types of informa tion. Conclusions. An important cue for improvement of pharmacist-pati ent communication was patient question asking. Thus, it is imperative to find ways to increase question asking by patients and understand wh y some patients are reluctant to ask their pharmacist questions.