Stakeholders’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators in dispensing hormonal contraceptives by community pharmacist: an exploratory study

Unintended pregnancy imposes a critical global health, social and economic burden. It was estimated about one-third of unintended pregnancies in Southeast Asia were due to low use of contraception, contraceptive method failure, and high unmet need for contraceptives. This study explored the current practices and issues in dispensing hormonal contraceptives in community pharmacy settings in Malaysia. An in-depth qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted among the stakeholders consisting of community pharmacists, general practitioners, Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) specialists, medical officers and pharmacists from the Ministry of Health. Eighteen participants were recruited using purposive sampling. The interviews were completed when saturation was achieved and analysed using an inductive approach to identify themes, whereby emerging themes were coded and grouped into categories. Three themes were identified: healthcare professional factors, consumer factors and system factors. Community pharmacists should anticipate challenges in dispensing contraceptives mainly attributable to a lack of training and guidelines or standardisation.