TY - JOUR
T1 - Pharmacist-prescribed and over-the-counter hormonal contraception in los angeles county retail pharmacies
AU - Qato, Dima Mazen
AU - Alexander, G. Caleb
AU - Guadamuz, Jenny S.
AU - Choi, Sun
AU - Trotzky-Sirr, Rebecca
AU - Lindau, Stacy Tessler
N1 - Funding Information:
Dima Qato is a paid consultant with Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and is a fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. Caleb Alexander is past chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee; has served as a paid advisor to IQVIA; is a paid consultant and holds equity in Monument Analytics, a health care consultancy whose clients include the life sciences industry as well as plaintiffs in opioid litigation; and is a member of OptumRx’s National Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. This arrangement has been reviewed and approved by Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies. Stacy Lindau is founder, coowner, and chief innovation officer of NowPow, LLC. Neither the University of Chicago nor UChicago Medicine is endorsing or promoting any NowPow entity or its business, products, or services. Qato was supported, in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Clinical Scholars Leadership program. Jenny Guadamuz was supported, in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar program and by a predoctoral institutional training grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant No. T32-HL125294). The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study, analysis or interpretation of the data, and preparation or final approval of the manuscript prior to publication. The authors acknowledge Susie Baldwin and Shin Margaret Chao from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for providing the data necessary for some of their analyses. They also acknowledge Kristen Wroblewski from the University of Chicago for her statistical review and insight.
Funding Information:
Dima Qato is a paid consultant with Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and is a fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. Caleb Alexander is past chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee; has served as a paid advisor to IQVIA; is a paid consultant and holds equity in Monument Analytics, a health care consultancy whose clients include the life sciences industry as well as plaintiffs in opioid litigation; and is a member of OptumRx’s National Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. This arrangement has been reviewed and approved by Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies. Stacy Lindau is founder, co-owner, and chief innovation officer of NowPow, LLC. Neither the University of Chicago nor UChicago Medicine is endorsing or promoting any NowPow entity or its business, products, or services. Qato was supported, in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the Clinical Scholars Leadership program. Jenny Guadamuz was supported, in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar program and by a predoctoral institutional training grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant No. T32-HL125294). The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study, analysis or interpretation of the data, and preparation or final approval of the manuscript prior to publication. The authors acknowledge Susie Baldwin and Shin Margaret Chao from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for providing the data necessary for some of their analyses. They also acknowledge Kristen Wroblewski from the University of Chicago for her statistical review and insight.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Project HOPE— The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
PY - 2020/7
Y1 - 2020/7
N2 - Federal and state policies to increase access to birth control have included expanding access to preventive and emergency hormonal contraception at pharmacies for women and girls of all ages without a physician’s prescription. We conducted a “mystery shopper” telephone survey to quantify the impact of these policies in Los Angeles County, California. That county consistently has among the highest number of unintended pregnancies and teen births in the US, especially in lowincome and minority neighborhoods. Between June and November 2017, three in four pharmacies offered over-the-counter emergency hormonal contraception, but only one in ten offered pharmacist-prescribed preventive hormonal contraception. Many of these pharmacies also imposed age restrictions when dispensing hormonal contraception, including in the neighborhoods at highest risk for unintended pregnancies and teen births, even though the Food and Drug Administration removed age restrictions for over-the-counter emergency hormonal contraception in 2013. In addition, many low-income, minority neighborhoods lacked pharmacies when the survey was performed. Policies aimed solely at expanding pharmacy access to birth control might not be sufficient to address disparities in contraceptive use.
AB - Federal and state policies to increase access to birth control have included expanding access to preventive and emergency hormonal contraception at pharmacies for women and girls of all ages without a physician’s prescription. We conducted a “mystery shopper” telephone survey to quantify the impact of these policies in Los Angeles County, California. That county consistently has among the highest number of unintended pregnancies and teen births in the US, especially in lowincome and minority neighborhoods. Between June and November 2017, three in four pharmacies offered over-the-counter emergency hormonal contraception, but only one in ten offered pharmacist-prescribed preventive hormonal contraception. Many of these pharmacies also imposed age restrictions when dispensing hormonal contraception, including in the neighborhoods at highest risk for unintended pregnancies and teen births, even though the Food and Drug Administration removed age restrictions for over-the-counter emergency hormonal contraception in 2013. In addition, many low-income, minority neighborhoods lacked pharmacies when the survey was performed. Policies aimed solely at expanding pharmacy access to birth control might not be sufficient to address disparities in contraceptive use.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087670014&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85087670014&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01686
DO - 10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01686
M3 - Article
C2 - 32634349
AN - SCOPUS:85087670014
SN - 0278-2715
VL - 39
SP - 1219
EP - 1228
JO - Health Affairs
JF - Health Affairs
IS - 7
ER -