Pharmacy Week in Review: National Immunization Awareness Month, Low-Income Groups Benefit from ACA

A look at last week's top stories in the world of pharmacy.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Pharmacy Times News Network. I’m Nicole Grassano your host for our Pharmacy Week in Review.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month, and the CDC is encouraging parents to ensure that their children have the recommended vaccines for the upcoming school year, Pharmacy Times reported. The 2017-2018 flu season had record-breaking rates in flu-like illness and hospitalization, with 176 flu-related deaths among children until June 30, the most in a single flu season, according to the CDC. The CDC suggested that some of these deaths may have been preventable, as about 80% of fatal cases were in children who had not received a vaccination. Several other diseases can be prevented with vaccinations, including measles, and whooping cough. From birth to age 6, children should receive routine vaccinations to protect them from serious, and even deadly, diseases. Children older than 6 months should also receive an annual flu vaccine. Preteens and teens should receive an annual flu vaccine, as well as the HPV vaccine, the TDaP shot to prevent tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis, and the meningococcal conjugate vaccine to protect against meningitis, bacteremia, and septicemia.

Pharmacists at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora established a Collaborative Drug Therapy Management—driven bilingual clinical pharmacy service on diabetes outcomes for Latino patients and measured its impact, Contemporary Clinic reported. They published the results of this successful intervention in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy. The investigators found that the patients’ median HbA_1C fell to 9.1% from 10.5% over the course of the intervention. These patients also had statistically significant blood pressure reductions. Improvement in HbA_1C increased as the number of visits with the Spanish-speaking clinical pharmacist rose. Latino patients who preferred their care in Spanish had the same outcome as non-Latino and English speakers. This finding is important because multiple studies have shown that patients in this population have traditionally had poorer outcomes.

The Affordable Care Act helped improve health care-related financial strain in low-income groups, particularly among those living closest to the federal poverty line, according to findings from a new study and reported on by Specialty Pharmacy Times. In the study, which was published in INQUIRY, researchers from Drexel University sought to analyze changes in poverty-driven disparities in health care financial strain, access, and utilization among working-age adults. The researchers compared the near-poverty line population with those making an income 4 times greater than the poverty line or more. Individuals living closest to the federal poverty line experienced the most significant reductions in health-related financial strain and un-insurance rates after the implementation of the ACA. According to the data, un-insurance rates for those below or near the poverty line dropped between 11.2% and 14.2%. Additionally, they were more likely to be able to pay for care and their prescriptions when needed.

Pharmacists may get more questions about Rohto Dry-Aid if their patients have seen a new commercial for the OTC product. In the spot, called “Going Crazy,” a woman’s dry eyes are making her so crazy that she resorts to spritzing them with squirt bottles to keep them moist. But then she discovers Rohto Dry-Aid. According to the commercial, Rohto Dry-Aid offers 12 hours of soothing relief.

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Thanks for watching our Pharmacy Week in Review. I’m Nicole Grassano at the Pharmacy Times News Network.