OBJECTIVES: To examine the prevalence of patient-pharmacy staff communication about medications for pain and arthritis and to assess disparities in communication by demographic, socioeconomic, and health indicators.

DESIGN: Descriptive, nonexperimental, cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Alabama between 2005 and 2007.

PATIENTS: 687 Patients participating in the Alabama NSAID Patient Safety Study (age >or=50 years and currently taking a prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug [NSAID]).

INTERVENTION: Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Communication with pharmacy staff about prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) NSAIDs was examined before and after adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic, and health indicators.

RESULTS: For the entire cohort (n = 687), mean (+/-SD) age was 68.3 +/- 10.0 years, 72.8% were women, 36.4% were black, and 31.2% discussed use of prescription pain/arthritis medications with pharmacy staff. Discussing use of prescription pain/arthritis medications with pharmacy staff differed by race/gender (P < 0.001): white men (40.3%), white women (34.6%), black men (30.2%), and black women (19.8%). Even after multivariable adjustment, black women had the lowest odds of discussing their medications with pharmacy staff (odds ratio 0.40 [95% CI 0.24-0.56]) compared with white men. For the 63.0% of participants with recently overlapping prescription and OTC NSAID use, communication with pharmacy staff about OTC NSAIDs use was only 13.7% and did not vary significantly by race/gender group.

CONCLUSION: Given the complex risks and benefits of chronic NSAID use, pharmacists, pharmacy staff, and patients all are missing an important opportunity to avoid unsafe prescribing and decrease medication adverse events.