Community pharmacy-based health screening programs: effectiveness and challenges

Abstract

Background: Community pharmacies are becoming known as convenient ways to conduct a public health intervention. The health screening programs provided in such settings have a great potential to achieve earlier control and prevention of chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Nevertheless, their efficiency and difficulties with operation remain to be poorly comprehended.

Purpose: The review is a study to determine the clinical efficacy of the community pharmacy based health screening initiatives and to delineate the major operational and structural challenges which hinder their use and expansion.

Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were chosen and used to perform a structured narrative review of the peer-reviewed literature published 2010-2024. Screening randomized controlled studies that assessed pharmacy-based cardiovascular risk factor screenings, metabolic screening, respiratory screening, and mental health screening were included. The information was scanned regarding type of screening, population, outcomes, and barriers.

Findings: There is continuous evidence that screenings conducted in community pharmacies have high patient uptake and find previously unnoticed conditions at substantial rates. The screenings of blood pressure and blood glucose had a detection rate of 2335 and 1422 percent of undiagnosed hypertension and diabetes complications respectively. Among migration factors potential challenges that were identified are poor reimbursement provisions, time and restriction of clinical assessment in training of pharmacists, and standardized referral pathways, and patient privacy issues.

Conclusion: Health screening programs that are organized within the community pharmacy are effective, feasible, and appreciated by patients. They need systemic support such as regulatory frameworks, professional development in pharmacists, inter-professional collaboration, and the models of sustainable funding to assist in developing their full potential. Long-term health outcomes ought to be considered in future studies through the use of longitudinal controlled studies.