COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PHARMACISTS AND PATIENTS - THE ROLE OF PLACE OFRESIDENCE IN DETERMINING THE EXPECTATIONS OF OLDER ADULTS

The relationship between the place of residence of elderly patients an d their expectations about the content and style of their communicatio n with pharmacists was studied. Using stratified random sampling of ho useholds, telephone interviews were completed in Spring 1994 with 200 rural and 200 urban persons age 65 or older currently taking a prescri bed drug that they picked up at a pharmacy. Respondents were asked abo ut their sociodemographic characteristics, health, and experiences wit h prescription drugs. Factor analysis of items measuring the elders' e xpectations yielded one factor with nine items. Multivariate analysis was used to examine the effect of residence while controlling for othe r variables. Subjects currently took 3.2 +/- 2.2 drugs (mean +/- SD). Fifty-two percent of rural elders used independent pharmacies, and 83% of urban elders used chain pharmacies. On six of the nine items in th e expectation scale, rural elders held significantly different (higher ) expectations for their pharmacists compared with urban elders. The m ost fully specified model contained five variables significantly assoc iated with higher expectations: elders who took fewer drugs and who ha d a stroke, angina, osteoporosis, and no coronary heart disease. Altho ugh place of residence was a significant predictor of elders' expectat ions in the first three models, it was not when drug experiences were added in. Overall, older people in different places of residence have dissimilar personal and drug characteristics, and pharmacists practici ng in different community contexts can anticipate encountering differe nt patient expectations.