Marketing to comunicate pharmaceutical professional services: Experience of a community pharmacy in l’Alfàs del Pi

Objectives: Start a new paid service for the control and screening of cardiovascular risk factors, promoting it through a innovative marketing campaign. And know the level of cardiovascular risk of our users, as well as some of its main modifiable factors associated.

Material and methods: Cross-sectional observational study, in adult users who requested to participate in the campaign. It was called “First Date: an appointment with your heart” (referring all its materials to the well-known television program) and patients were offered a 12€ Special Menu composed by a Starter (Abdominal perimeter, BMI, BP and pulse collection), Main Course (Total colesterol and Vascular Age) and Dessert (CV risk).

Results: We made 34 menus: average age 57.8 years and 53% of them women. We found values above the normal limits, without significant differences between sexes in (% of the total population): abdominal perimeter (50%), BMI (18% overweight and 5% obesity), total cholesterol (70.6%), PWV (23.5%) and PAS (14.7% SBP). Regarding the DBP, significant differences were found between both sexes: 70.0 ± 2.0 mmHg in women and 83.1 ± 3.2 mmHg in men (** p = 0.0012 t test). Sex differences in smoking habits (75% of smokers were men) and alcohol consumption (72.7% of habitual users were men) were found. 29.4% of the population had mean CV risk and 20.6% elevated. We found an irregular pulse without previous diagnosis in 11.8% of patients (2 men and 2 women). There were 4 referrals to the doctor, 7 referrals for control of BP in the pharmacy, 26 recommendations about diet and exercise, 6 recommendations about tobacco and 3 interventions on adherence.

Conclusions: Aided by the marketing campaign, we were able to communicate and properly initiate our Professional Service (paid) for Screening and Control of Cardiovascular Risk Factors. The values found in our population have a high margin of improvement, especially in terms of the levels of DBP, total cholesterol, abdominal perimeter and CV risk levels.