Effectiveness of family pharmacist intervention on drug use problems, quality of life and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with diabetic kidney disease at a primary care unit: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Patients with diabetic kidney disease have high cardiovascular risk (CV risk). Many patients also have drug-related problems (DRP) leading to negative quality of life (QOL). Family pharmacist intervention (FPI) is a family medicine concept that emphasizes patient-centered care with effective communication. This study assessed the effectiveness of FPI compared with usual care (UC) on outcomes of drug use, QOL and CV risk factors. This randomized controlled trial was conducted with 48 patients in each group in a primary care unit. Results showed that 157 DRP were found in the FPI group (75.8% were resolved) with 43 in the UC group (41.9% were resolved). There were 84 incidents of drug-related suffering (DRS) and 34 drug system problems (DSP) in primary care in the FPI group. For QOL, the FPI group had significantly different utility scores than the UC group. Clinical outcomes, blood pressure and total cholesterol were significantly different between the two groups, while CV risk of the FPI group decreased. FPI proved to be effective for pharmacists to resolve problems with patients and multidisciplinary teams. FPI was also more effective than UC for patient QOL and some CV risk factors.

Keywords

• family pharmacist intervention
• cardiovascular risk
• drug-related problems
• drug-related suffering
• primary care