More pharmacy closures leave consumers in pharmacy deserts without access to medications
Published on USA Today by Betty Lin-Fisher on 10/18/2024
Nearly half of U.S. counties, or 46%, had at least one pharmacy desert, according to an article in August in the American Medical Association journal JAMA. The report used data from 2000 and does not account for more recent closure announcements by retail pharmacies.
In particular when pharmacies close and leave an area without easy access to an alternative, it disproportionately affects residents in rural areas and urban residents in poorer communities who are often people of color, said Dima Mazen Qato, an associate professor of clinical pharmacy and spatial sciences at the University of Southern California.
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