Geriatric customers' satisfaction with community pharmacy services in Sagamu South West Nigeria

Background: The geriatrics due to their frailty and impairments have different perception of health needs from their younger cohorts and require special care. Little is however known about the extent to which their needs are met in community pharmacy.

Objective: This study aimed at evaluating geriatric patients' satisfaction with community pharmacy services in Sagamu, southwest Nigeria.

Methods: The study was cross sectional utilizing questionnaires administered to 269 geriatric customers in 12 th th community pharmacies in Sagamu, Nigeria between 5 of January and 28 of March 2015. Convenience sampling was used for customers' selection. A 22 -item instrument was used to explore respondents' satisfaction with various aspects of pharmaceutical care services offered by community pharmacies such as provision of drug information among others. Descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage were used to summarise the data while Chi square was used for test of proportions. The priori level for statistical significance was considered at p <0.05.

Results: The response rate was 250 (92.9%). Majority 141 (56.4%) of the respondents were female and married 136 (54.4%). Majority of the respondents 225 (92.6%) were satisfied with pharmacists' assessment of therapy; 201 (85.9%) were satisfied with pharmacists' intervention in cases of therapeutic failure. Pharmacist services were considered helpful in improving the health of majority 239(95.6%) of the respondents.

Conclusion: The Geriatrics respondents were satisfied with the medication information management skill and pharmaceutical care services offered by pharmacists. However, pharmacists' availability at their premises was less satisfactory. Pharmacists' accessibility to the geriatrics needs to be improved upon.