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Factors Associated with Presence of Pharmacies and Pharmacies that Sell Syringes Over-the-Counter in Los Angeles County

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Abstract

Community pharmacies serve as key locations for public health services including interventions to enhance the availability of syringes sold over-the-counter (OTC), an important strategy to prevent injection-mediated HIV transmission. Little is known about the community characteristics associated with the availability of pharmacies and pharmacies that sell syringes OTC. We conducted multivariable regression analyses to determine whether the sociodemographic characteristics of census tract residents were associated with pharmacy presence in Los Angeles (LA) County during 2008. Using a geographic information system, we conducted hot-spot analyses to identify clusters of pharmacies, OTC syringe-selling pharmacies, sociodemographic variables, and their relationships. For LA County census tracts (N = 2,054), population size (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.22; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 1.16, 1.28), median age of residents (AOR, 1.03; 95 % CI, 1.01, 1.05), and the percent of households receiving public assistance (AOR, 0.97; 95 % CI, 0.94, 0.99) were independently associated with the presence of all pharmacies. Only 12 % of census tracts had at least one OTC syringe-selling pharmacy and sociodemographic variables were not independently associated with the presence of OTC syringe-selling pharmacies. Clusters of pharmacies (p < 0.01) were located proximally to clusters of older populations and were distant from clusters of poorer populations. Our combined statistical and spatial analyses provided an innovative approach to assess the sociodemographic and geographic factors associated with the presence of community pharmacies and pharmacies that participate in OTC syringe sales.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Lauren Scott and Lauren Rosenhein Bennett for technical assistance with the hot-spot cluster analysis methodology. This study was supported by doctoral studies fellowship funding (Stopka) through the Graduate Group in Epidemiology, University of California, Davis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Group in Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Thomas J. Stopka, Estella M. Geraghty, Rahman Azari, Ellen B. Gold & Kathryn DeRiemer

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Estella M. Geraghty

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  1. Thomas J. Stopka
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  2. Estella M. Geraghty
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  3. Rahman Azari
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  4. Ellen B. Gold
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Correspondence to Thomas J. Stopka.

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Stopka, T.J., Geraghty, E.M., Azari, R. et al. Factors Associated with Presence of Pharmacies and Pharmacies that Sell Syringes Over-the-Counter in Los Angeles County. J Urban Health 90, 1079–1090 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-013-9798-7

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