Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services : a quantitative retrospective study
Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services : a quantitative retrospective study
Objectives: to explore the utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in order to optimise delivery and identify barriers to access.
Methods: the health provider Umbrella offers six SRHS from over 120 pharmacies in Birmingham (England). In this retrospective study, data collected between August 2015 and August 2018 were used to analyse uptake, user characteristics and attendance patterns according to day of the week.
Results: a total of 60 498 requests for a pharmacy service were included in the analysis. Emergency contraception (50.4%), condoms (33.1%) and STI self-sampling kits (9.6%) accounted for more than 90% of all requests. A lower uptake of services was observed for the contraceptive injection (0.6%), oral contraception (5.4%) and chlamydia treatment (1.0%). Services were most likely to be requested by those self-identifying as female (85.6%), and those aged 16?24 years (53.8%). Based on available ethnicity data (n=54 668), most requests for a service were made by White/White British individuals (43.4%) and Asian/Asian British people (23.1%). The largest number of services were delivered on Mondays (20.9%) and the lowest on Sundays (5.0%). A high proportion of requests for services on Saturdays (57.0%), Sundays (67.6%) and Mondays (54.4%) were made by females presenting for emergency contraception.
Conclusion: the evaluation of healthcare utilisation is important to help refine and optimise the delivery of services. However, information relating to pharmacy-based SRHS is scarce and often limited to a single type of service provision. Overall, a wide range of pharmacy-based services were accessed by a diverse range of people, suggesting that pharmacies are a suitable provider of many SRHS. However, the routinely collected data analysed in the study had several limitations restricting the analysis. Sexual health providers should ensure they collect data which are as comprehensive as is possible in order to help understand the utilisation of services.
126-133
Gauly, Julia
94bbd3d2-6daf-420d-8ca2-80d57d7cf857
Atherton, Helen
9bb8932e-7bb7-4781-ab97-114613de99b1
Kimani, Peter K.
effd4052-34f0-465f-9c81-63bf8689e055
Ross, Jonathan
90459779-9860-40a3-9ce7-4efb14ed15ec
Gauly, Julia
94bbd3d2-6daf-420d-8ca2-80d57d7cf857
Atherton, Helen
9bb8932e-7bb7-4781-ab97-114613de99b1
Kimani, Peter K.
effd4052-34f0-465f-9c81-63bf8689e055
Ross, Jonathan
90459779-9860-40a3-9ce7-4efb14ed15ec
Gauly, Julia, Atherton, Helen, Kimani, Peter K. and Ross, Jonathan
(2020)
Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services : a quantitative retrospective study.
Sexually Transmitted Infections, 97 (2), .
(doi:10.1136/sextrans-2020-054488).
Abstract
Objectives: to explore the utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in order to optimise delivery and identify barriers to access.
Methods: the health provider Umbrella offers six SRHS from over 120 pharmacies in Birmingham (England). In this retrospective study, data collected between August 2015 and August 2018 were used to analyse uptake, user characteristics and attendance patterns according to day of the week.
Results: a total of 60 498 requests for a pharmacy service were included in the analysis. Emergency contraception (50.4%), condoms (33.1%) and STI self-sampling kits (9.6%) accounted for more than 90% of all requests. A lower uptake of services was observed for the contraceptive injection (0.6%), oral contraception (5.4%) and chlamydia treatment (1.0%). Services were most likely to be requested by those self-identifying as female (85.6%), and those aged 16?24 years (53.8%). Based on available ethnicity data (n=54 668), most requests for a service were made by White/White British individuals (43.4%) and Asian/Asian British people (23.1%). The largest number of services were delivered on Mondays (20.9%) and the lowest on Sundays (5.0%). A high proportion of requests for services on Saturdays (57.0%), Sundays (67.6%) and Mondays (54.4%) were made by females presenting for emergency contraception.
Conclusion: the evaluation of healthcare utilisation is important to help refine and optimise the delivery of services. However, information relating to pharmacy-based SRHS is scarce and often limited to a single type of service provision. Overall, a wide range of pharmacy-based services were accessed by a diverse range of people, suggesting that pharmacies are a suitable provider of many SRHS. However, the routinely collected data analysed in the study had several limitations restricting the analysis. Sexual health providers should ensure they collect data which are as comprehensive as is possible in order to help understand the utilisation of services.
Text
126.full
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 27 June 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 August 2020
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 486510
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486510
ISSN: 1472-3263
PURE UUID: 84539083-8787-496b-9e84-d6e654ecd7c3
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 24 Jan 2024 17:59
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:18
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Julia Gauly
Author:
Helen Atherton
Author:
Peter K. Kimani
Author:
Jonathan Ross
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics