A scoping review of the pharmaceutical care needs of people with sensory loss.

Objectives This scoping review collated evidence of the pharmaceutical care
needs of people with sensory loss (SL).
Methods Electronic databases were searched with no limit on year of publication:
Medline (1946); Embase; CINAHL (1979); and Web of Science (1985).
Search terms included the following: pharmacy; sight/hearing/dual impairment.
Studies were included if they involved people with SL requiring pharmaceutical
care and/or pharmacists/pharmacy support staff providing pharmaceutical care
for people with SL. All study designs were eligible. This was a scoping review,
and as such, the quality of studies was not formally evaluated.
Key findings Eleven studies were included. People with SL had lower levels of
medication knowledge than their peers without SL. People with SL were identified
as being at higher risk of iatrogenic harm than people without SL. Communication was a barrier to the provision of pharmaceutical care for people
with hearing loss, with pharmacists relying on the provision of written information. The prevalence of SL increases with age, yet only two studies included older people. No studies involved family or carers of people with SL, people with dual loss or people with SL receiving polypharmacy.
Conclusions There is a paucity of data regarding the pharmaceutical care needs
of people with SL. Unmet pharmaceutical care needs put people with SL at
increased risk of harm from their medicines. A detailed understanding of the
needs of people with SL is required which will inform future delivery of pharmaceutical care for this vulnerable population.