Abstract

THERAPEUTIC MANAGEMENT OF MIDDLE EAR INFECTION AND IMPACT OF PATIENT COUNSELING BY THE CLINICAL PHARMACIST

*Dinesh Kumar Meena, Chintha Venkatarao

ABSTRACT

Objective – The main objective of our study is to counsel the patient about the disease and medication use, to counsel the patient about importance of medical adherence and life style modification, to assess the impact of patient counseling by the clinical pharmacist.Study design – This was a non-invasive prospective observational study consisting of 50 patients with middle ear infection, and they were evaluated about knowledge of disease among them and adherence to drug therapy. An intervention bases, randomized study was designed to evaluate the effect of patient counseling on a subsample of 25 in the study group and 25 in the control group. Result - In our study we found that mean knowledge score increased from 10.81 to 18.36 in study group after intervention i.e. counseling by the clinical pharmacist. In our study we found that patient who received counseling by the clinical pharmacist, showed significant improvement in the knowledge of the middle ear infection as compared to patient who lacked counseling.Conclusion –We found that patient awareness source is basically doctor who ensure the patient treatment but may not have time to educating the patient about the disease and risk factors. Hence clinical pharmacist can improve patient knowledge by educating programs and thereby adherence and hence control of the disease.

Keywords: middle ear infection or Otitis media, medical adherence, patient counseling, rehabilitation, patient compliance