An investigation of the factors affecting community pharmacists' selectionof over the counter preparations

A postal survey of pharmacists in a random sample of community pharmacies i n Great Britain was carried out to ascertain the factors which influenced t heir decisions when recommending a product for Over The Counter (OTC) sale. Six categories of condition which regularly present in community pharmacie s were selected and the pharmacists were asked to state which first line pr oduct they would recommend for each condition, in an uncomplicated situatio n with no other relevant problems. Of the 1138 questionnaires sent, 635 wer e suitable for analysis giving a response rate of 56.7%. The recommendation s were found to be appropriate in 99.7% of cases. Factors which had the gre atest influence on product selection were active ingredients, evidence of p roduct efficacy, ease of use by patient and patient characteristics such as age and concurrent medication. Economic factors such as profit, pressures of excess stock and product promotion by sales representatives were shown t o have a significantly greater influence on proprietor pharmacists than the other categories of pharmacist. The results of this study suggest that in the majority of cases pharmacists' decisions on OTC drug therapy are based on clinical and patient factors and whilst commercial factors may be involv ed they do not compromise the quality of the recommendations.