PATTERNS OF RESPONSE OF CUSTOMERS OF COMMUNITY PHARMACIES TO ESTIMATING VASCULAR AGE IN THE TOGETHER-TRIAL

Objective: The TOGETHER-trial (NCT06761235, Vascular age as a key for a Team-based approach to manage blood pressure and cardiovascular risk between community pharmacists and Primary Health Care Centers, www.together-project.com) aims at bridging collaboration between community pharmacies (CPhs) and general practitioners (GPs). Previous studies analyzed the frequency of early vascular aging (EVA) in customers entering CPhs on an opportunistic basis, but no data are available concerning subjects inclusion bias associated with the participating population. This study aims to assess the potential size of measurements and to characterize which factors influence on the decision to participate in TOGETHER. Design and method: Cross-sectional study in three different CPhs in Valencia (12/2024). During 9 days, between 4-8.30 pm, all consecutive customers entering three different CPhs were consecutively asked to assess BP and Pulse Wave Velocity. Student 1 performed brachial oscillometry (Tel-O-Graph®, IEM) in those subjects willing to participate, student 2 filled out a questionnaire about adherence to medication (MARS-5), and student 3 asked all customers who did not participate for the reasons of their response, noting also gender and age. Results: A total of 298 subjects were contacted during the 9 afternoons, with a mean age of 59.0 years and 64.2% women. Only 22.3% entered the CPh because of HTN-related issues. Globally, measurements were directly performed in 42.6% of the customers, 30.6% were willing but could not participate for logistic reasons, because only one device was available at that time, 18.7% answered they lacked time, and only 8% rejected participation because either they were not interested or other reasons. We found no significant relationship between refusal to participate and gender or age. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the very high predisposition of customers of pharmacies to participate in opportunistic BP/EVA screening campaigns free of charge. The fact that customers entering spontaneously a CPh are probably more similar to the general population than patients visiting their GPs and the high accessibility of CPh, confirms the CPhs as optimal locations for large-scale screening programs. Besides, this study will allow to extrapolate results of running studies to a wider population.