Abstract

THE CLINICAL PHARMACIST’S ROLE IN ENHANCEMENT OF MEDICATION ADHERENCE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN RESPIRATORY DISEASES - A PROSPECTIVE INTERVENTIONAL STUDY

The aim of the study was to assess the role of clinical pharmacist in the enhancement of medication adherence and QOL in patients with respiratory diseases. The study being a prospective interventional study was carried out for 6 months and the study population were divided randomly into control and intervention group using randomized block design. The QOL of the patients was assessed by using SGRQ and then the medication adherence was assessed using modified medication adherence scale before and after patient counseling and patient counseling was provided only to the intervention group. The patient counseling was provided using brochures and patient information leaflet (PIL). Among the 146 patients who completed the study, pre counseling medication adherence scores were similar for both the groups before counselling and after patient counseling there was statistically significant increase in medication adherence score and QOL in the intervention group than that of control group. The evaluation of the SGRQ score using Chi –square was done and the p value obtained was 0.992217, where the level of significance was set at 5% (p value<0.005). Thus this value indicates that the difference between the test and control is not statistically significant as the scoring was done without providing any counseling. Whereas for medication adherence the p value was found to be as 0.00139 (p value < 0.005); which indicates that there is a high level of statistical significance between the control, pre-counselling, and post-counselling values of medication adherence after providing patient counselling. Thus the study proved that the clinical pharmacist has a vital role in the enhancement of medication adherence and QOL in patients suffering from respiratory diseases.