Implementation of a Personal Health Planning Program and Health Promotion in the Community Pharmacies

It is well known that one of the most utilized health providers are community pharmacists, hence, their role in sanitarian programs should not be neglected. Meanwhile, they were not present in the first pilot trial of the Hungarian Health Planning Application (HHPA) made by the National Healthcare Services Center. On the other hand, they were involved in the latter phases of the personal health planning program. The aim was the detailed assessment of the HHPA, with regard to the newly introduced online form. The HHPA is a software designed to identify risks and help the health planning and management of the risks. The present study was started in the 2016/2017 academic year, the enrollment of citizens was made by resident pharmacists, who had further training about the software and primer (and tertiary) prevention. The resident pharmacists also filled two opinion surveys, one at the beginning of the study and one after the study period. Seventy-five pharmacists enrolled 594 citizens. The 190 participants, who enrolled by online ways, were significantly younger than those who enrolled by personal contact. On the other hand, the drop-out rate was comparable in the two groups. The main four risks that identified in the study were risk of inactive life (47.8%), weight problems (38.7%), risk of diabetes mellitus (26.9%) and cardiovascular risks (25.3%). About the project, majority of pharmacists thought it was a useful project. Highlighted supporting factors were colleges in the pharmacies who were mainly encouraging, but e.g. long risk-assessment or the non-cooperation of other healthcare providers were discouraging. The personal health planning program is a favorable initiation in identifying risks and determining health plans. Furthermore, the used software was not just better in the present pandemic case, but also non-inferior to the personal way. Funding Information: The project was funded by the National Healthcare Services Center. Declaration of Interests: Dr. Romana Zelko is an associate editor at Heliyon (in Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacology and Toxicology). Otherwise, the author reports no conflicts of interest in this work. Ethics Approval Statement: The survey complied with the Hungarian legal requirements (the pharmacy service was completely free and non-invasive). It was also carried out with the assistance and professional supervision of the NHSC. As GDPR decree was not yet enacted, verbal informed consents were obtained in each case from all participants in the pharmacies. Written consents were not required according to the Act CLIV of 1997 (non-invasive pharmacy service and questionnaire survey). The study was conducted as a free service of licensed pharmacies, with the voluntary and fully informed participation of patients. The services were provided by graduated pharmacists with licensed pharmacy technicians. The processing of the data was carried out in accordance with the Hungarian legal requirements at that time. For the processing of the results, the collected data were forwarded to the authors without any personal data. The personal and health records of the patients included in the study were kept anonymous.The study was in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki