This story first appeared on DrugTopics.com on May 14, 2020. It was written by Aine Cryts.
A pharmacy desert is defined as an area where limited access to pharmacies is acute. A 2014 study in Health Affairs found that segregated black and Hispanic communities in Chicago, Illinois are more likely to be host to pharmacy deserts and that 1 million people in the city were living in these pharmacy deserts. Fifty-three percent of those individuals were living in segregated black communities.
In addition to dispensing prescription medications, local pharmacies have a role to play in the sale of OTC products and, increasingly, the provision of diagnostic, preventive, and urgent-care services, wrote the study coauthors.
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