ABSTRACT
Pharmacists are said to play a major role in nonprescription drug product selection. The main objective of this study was to determine the major factors leading to a recommendation of a nonprescription analgesic by community pharmacists. A questionnaire was personally distributed to 80 randomly selected Sydney community pharmacies. Factor analysis (principal factors) with promax rotation was employed, and a 4-factor solution was interpreted, with 25 reasons that influence community pharmacists when recommending nonprescription analgesics for a simple headache. The factors were labeled product characteristics, advertising, economic influences, and social influences. Using paired t tests, it was found that me effect of product characteristics was significantly more important than the effects of advertising, economic influences, and social influences (p < 0.0001). The effect of advertising influences was found to be significantly more important than the effect of social influences (p < 0.0001). The study has shown the importance pharmacists place on product attributes when recommending nonprescription analgesics and that pharmacists' individual brand preferences also influence their recommendation.