Abstract

DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING PHARMACEUTICAL CARE PLAN IN BRONCHIAL ASTHMA PATIENTS IN A RURAL TEACHING HOSPITAL

*Deepthi.B, Y.Bhagya Sree, Venkatesh.C, G.P.Mohanta, M.Senthil Velan

ABSTRACT

Background: Bronchial asthma though preventable and treatable continues to affect the quality of life of the patients and mostly due to in appropriate management of conditions. In this study, an attempt has been made to provide pharmaceutical care based on therapeutic regimen prescribed, counseling patient on disease condition, medication use, and medication adherence. Objective: The main objective of our study was to develop and implement pharmaceutical care plan in bronchial asthma patients. Materials and Methods: The study was a Non-invasive Prospective Observational Study carried out on asthma patients visiting out-patient & in-patient Department of Medicine at R.M.M.C&H, Chidambaram a 1200 bedded multi-specialty tertiary care teaching hospital located in rural South India from November 2012 – April 2013. In our study totally 52 patients were observed and an attempt has been made to provide pharmaceutical care based on therapeutic regimen prescribed, counseling patient on disease condition, medication use, medication adherence and also assessed the quality of life (QoL) using a WHOQoLBREF. The results were analyzed by using student’s‘t’ test. Results: In our study the main cause of asthma was observed as climatic conditions (50%), males (18 in test and 17 in control) were most affected than females (9 in test and 8 in control). We observed the most affected test subjects were under the age group of 40-60 (40.7%) and smokers (70%) had more chance of infecting with asthma than non smokers (30%). Most of the subjects were having moderate type of asthma (58.33%). We observed 72% of the subjects were having the similar family history and about 80% of subjects had shown effect on working life. In our study the QoL before and after counseling and the mean scores shows that there is a gradual increase in QoL after counseling in both test and control groups, it was significantly increased in male subjects and increased more in the age group of 80-100 years followed by 60-80 years. We observed a significant values in educating the subjects about inhaler assessment. Conclusion: From our study we conclude that patient counseling aided and had a positive impact on patient’s understanding of their illness and the role of medications in its treatment, improved medication adherence, and improved Quality of life for the patients. Moreover, a good professional rapport has been built between the Pharmacist and the Patient.

Keywords: Asthma, WHOQoL-BREF, pharmaceutical care, medication adherence