Effectiveness and sustainment of a tailored over-the-counter medication safety intervention in community pharmacies: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Introduction: The Senior Section is a continuation of a previous intervention that aims to address a gap in medication safety, specifically related to older adult selection and use of over-the-counter medications. The purpose of this paper is to describe the protocol of this study.

Methods: This study will occur in three phases: an adaptation phase, an effectiveness phase using a randomized controlled trial, and a sustainment phase. This study will take place in conjunction with administrative leadership and pharmacy sites of a regional Midwest integrated health system. Eye tracking technology will inform the adaptation of the intervention and demonstrate effectiveness in the randomized controlled trial. Following the randomized controlled trial, the health system will implement the intervention without research team support. Fidelity and long-term effectiveness outcomes will be collected to demonstrate sustainment.

Discussion: The potential implications of this study are a complete and sustained redesign of the pharmacy setting to include educational and directional materials on medication safety, leading to a decrease in over-the-counter medication misuse in older adults. This project could provide a road map for pharmacy organizations to tailor and adopt the Senior Section, to ultimately reduce inappropriate over-the-counter medication use in older adults.

Keywords: Older adults; Over-the-counter medication; Pharmacy; Pharmacy intervention; Stakeholder groups; System redesign.