Exploring the experiences of, and barriers and facilitators to, communication with people with age-related hearing loss in community pharmacy settings
What were we trying to do?
The aim of this qualitative study was to understand the experiences of community pharmacists and people with age-related hearing loss when accessing a community pharmacy. The study explored the difficulties of interaction and communication encountered from the perspectives of people with age-related hearing loss (age 50 and over) and community pharmacists – to identify barriers to effective care and suggest ways in which to improve these interactions.
Why was this important?
One in six UK adults have hearing loss or are deaf, and this number increases with age. People with hearing loss experience poorer health and reduced access to healthcare provision, including prescription drugs. In community pharmacy settings, ensuring patients can understand information about medicines is important for their safe and effective use. Communication regarding medicines is particularly important for older people who are more likely to experience multiple health conditions and use multiple medications daily.
However, people with hearing loss have described poor understanding of their medications (such as dosage requirements and side effects) which, in some cases, has been found to result in harm to patients. There are mixed findings regarding how comfortable community pharmacy professionals feel when delivering care to people with hearing loss. Some community pharmacists have reported concerns about a lack of understanding when interacting with this group. Such problems are exacerbated by the use of facemasks and Perspex screens during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite awareness of the challenges faced by people with hearing loss in healthcare encounters, little is known about the specific barriers and facilitators to communication in community pharmacy settings. Moreover, apart from one recent project exploring the pharmaceutical care needs of older people with sensory impairments, there is limited evidence on the specific communication barriers experienced by people with age-related hearing loss in these settings. This study sought to address this knowledge gap, to help identify and design interventions to improve communication and ensure the safe and effective use of medicines with this group.
How did we do it?
This study was led by Dr Penny Lewis, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Pharmacy and involved a multi-professional team of researchers at the University of Manchester, across the Division of Pharmacy & Optometry, Division of Human Communication, Development & Hearing, Division of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, and Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA).
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who had age-related hearing loss (age 50 years and over) who regularly used community pharmacy services. We also spoke to older people (age 50 years and over) who regularly used community pharmacy services, but who did not have age-related hearing loss.
Focus groups were held with community pharmacists to understand their views on interacting with and providing care for people with age-related hearing loss – to identify examples of best practice, challenges encountered, and solutions to improve patient-centred care for this group.
Interviews and focus groups explored the following themes: positive and negative experiences of accessing or providing community pharmacy services; interactions between patients and community pharmacy professionals; the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these interactions; and ways in which to improve interactions and patient experiences. Interviews also explored patients’ expectations and use of community pharmacies. All interviews and focus groups for this study took place online.
Who were we working with?
- NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre’s Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Collaborative
- Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness
- Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA)
Downloadable resources:
Contact information
Programme Manager
Alison Littlewood
alison.j.littlewood@manchester.ac.uk