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Could community pharmacies help to improve youth health? Service availability and views of pharmacy personnel in New Zealand

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the availability of youth-relevant community pharmacy services in New Zealand (NZ), and the opinions of pharmacy personnel on the appropriateness of these services for young people aged 12–24.

Methods

Pharmacist and pharmacy support staff (PSS) questionnaires were developed collaboratively with a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and were mailed to 500 randomly selected community pharmacies in NZ.

Results

Response rates for questionnaires were 50.5 % for pharmacists and 37.0 % for PSS. The majority of community pharmacies in NZ offer public health services relevant to youth health including emergency contraception, condoms, smoking cessation, weight management and harm reduction services for drug use. Not all pharmacy personnel believed these services are appropriate for youth, particularly for those aged 16 or under. PSS appeared less likely than pharmacists to feel services were appropriate.

Conclusions

Community pharmacies are offering an increasing range of youth-relevant health services, and may, therefore, be able to improve youth healthcare access. More research is required to investigate the barriers to young people accessing services from pharmacies, and also the challenges for pharmacy personnel in providing services to this age group.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Counties Manukau District Health Board Youth Advisory Group, Youthline Manukau and the study participants for their valued contribution to this research. Thank you also to Dr Nicola Celino and Marion Blumenstein for their help in the early stages of the study developement. This study was supported by University of Auckland and New Zealand Pharmacy Education and Research funding.

Conflict of interest

None to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Emma Horsfield & Janie Sheridan

  2. Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Fiona Kelly

  3. School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Joanna Stewart & Terryann Clark

Authors
  1. Emma Horsfield
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  2. Fiona Kelly
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  3. Janie Sheridan
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  4. Joanna Stewart
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  5. Terryann Clark
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emma Horsfield.

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Horsfield, E., Kelly, F., Sheridan, J. et al. Could community pharmacies help to improve youth health? Service availability and views of pharmacy personnel in New Zealand. Int J Public Health 59, 789–798 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0593-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0593-3

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