An Assessment of the Prevalence and Awareness of Gluten in Prescription Medications by Patients and Pharmacists

Abstract

Objectives: To assess pharmacists’ and celiac patients’ knowledge and awareness about gluten in medications. Methods: People diagnosed with celiac disease were eligible to participate in the study. Patient questionnaires were administered at two of the quarterly Southern Arizona Celiac Support group meetings. Patients were surveyed regarding how to check the gluten-free status of prescription medications. Pharmacists from Tucson and Phoenix were included in the study. They were contacted by e-mail and invited to participate in the website questionnaire. Pharmacists were surveyed regarding their knowledge and comfort level of gluten content in medications. Both the patient questionnaires and pharmacist questionnaires utilized a rating scale of 0 to 5 (0=not at all, 5=very much). All other questions were multiple-choice. Results: Patient questionnaires were completed by 20 patients diagnosed for <5 years and 19 patients diagnosed ≥5 years. Seventy percent of patients reported that one of the ways they determine a medications’ gluten content is by asking a pharmacist which was significantly higher than any other method reported (p ≤ .010). Pharmacist questionnaires were completed by 40 clinical/hospital pharmacists and 25 community pharmacists. There were no significant differences in the two pharmacist groups’ reported level of knowledge (2.0±1.4 and 2.2±1.3, p=0.50), confidence in counseling (1.6±1.3 and 1.9 ±1.5 p= 0.41), or willingness to determine gluten content in medications (3.4±1.4 and 3.5±1.5). Conclusions: Celiac patients rely on pharmacists to determine the gluten content in medications. Pharmacists are willing to help patients determine gluten content, but are unconfident in their ability to do this.