Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Public Perceptions of the Roles and Functions of Community Pharmacies in South Korea: Updated Cross-Sectional Self-Reported Web-Based Survey
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Community pharmacists confronted dual burdens in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding the scope of pharmaceutical practices. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the perceived roles and functions of community pharmacies during the pandemic and to explore their updated roles after the pandemic began. METHODS: We conducted a self-reported web-based survey in October 2022. Based on Korean census data, we recruited the study participants (n=1000) through quota sampling stratified by age, sex, and region, yielding a 7.45% (1000/13,423) response rate. The questionnaires were composed of 3 sections: demographics, the roles and functions of community pharmacies during the pandemic, and the updated roles of community pharmacies during disasters. Each question in the second and third sections was rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), and each item's mean scores and SDs were reported. The study participants were categorized into 2 groups: individuals who had a family pharmacy and those who did not. A chi-square test and ordered logistic regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Out of 1000 respondents, 418 (41.8%) had a history of COVID-19, and 639 (63.9%) had a family pharmacy. Assigning specific roles and functions to community pharmacies during the pandemic contributed to positive assessments. Respondents gave higher scores to community pharmacies that had responded appropriately (a mean Likert score of 3.66, SD .077 out of 5) and provided continuous pharmaceutical services (mean 3.67, SD 0.87) during the pandemic. The pandemic served as an opportunity to positively recognize the role of community pharmacies (mean 3.59, SD 0.83). In the ordered logistic model, having a family pharmacy was consistently associated with positive perceptions. Respondents perceived that community pharmacies collaborated with general practitioners and health authorities. However, community pharmacies need to function appropriately in terms of knowledge. The mean score of the 4 domains of community pharmacy functions was the highest for collaboration (mean 3.66, SD 0.83), followed by communication (mean 3.57, SD 0.87), responsiveness (mean 3.54, SD 0.87), and knowledge (mean 3.41, SD 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic resulted in interprofessional collaboration between community pharmacists and general practitioners. Family pharmacies could be a valuable asset to the comprehensive case management of patients. However, community pharmacists should have the expertise to build solid interprofessional collaborations and fulfill their expanded and updated roles.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".