The impact of patient age on the pharmacist's recommendation of OTC anti-common cold products before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: A pharmacist is the first point of contact when a patient seeks the most effective over-the-counter treatment, usually for a self-diagnosed disease, especially in the case of difficult or limited access to medical practitioners. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of the patient's age on the pharmacist's recommendation of over-the-counter anti-common cold treatment before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is based on a self-developed questionnaire about pharmacists' recommendations for patients with cold symptoms collected in four large network community pharmacies in Lodz, Poland, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pearson's chi-square test and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to determine the relationship between the patient's age and frequency of medication recommendations. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine differences in recommendations between the analyzed periods. RESULTS: We report higher odds of pharmacists' recommendations (odds ratio > 1; p < 0.01667) for ibuprofen with pseudoephedrine for patients aged 18-40 years, paracetamol with ascorbic acid, and phenylephrine HCl, acetylcysteine, other soluble products, and other tablets/capsules for patients aged 61-90 years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, there were higher odds of recommendations for paracetamol with ascorbic acid and phenylephrine HCl, inosines, and other soluble products for the 41-60 age cohort, and for homeopathic and herbal products for the 61-90 age cohort during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Patients, especially older people who take several medications, require special attention when being advised about over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Our findings clearly demonstrated the constant need for improving pharmacists' counseling regarding OTC medicines (i.e., age-, comorbidities-, and drug-drug-interaction-adapting recommendations) by training and increasing professional skills.