Abstract

THE PHARMACIST ROLE IN PATIENTS’ QUALITY OF LIFE

Prof. Dr. Valentina Petkova*

ABSTRACT

Background: In the recent decades the quality-of-life studies have revealed that the assessed data can produce vital information about patients’ interaction with illness and their response to treatment. The aim of this review is to assess the possibility of pharmacists to use and measure the QoL as health professionals. Methodology: Analysis of the available on-line information were provided. Researched materials based on literature review are: literature data based on keywords in scientific databases: Scopus, Medline, Google Scholar, Springer and other documents studying the possibility of pharmacists to use information about QoL and to apply different disease-specific instruments. The collected information was standardized in a table. Results: Researched materials based on literature review are: articles, abstracts, and others based on the connection between QoL and pharmacists. The results show that there are nine documents found that cover the topic. Conclusions: The performed analysis shows that pharmacists can successfully use and measure the QoL as health professionals. This additional function can improve patients; adherence and compliance, can make the patients better understand his duty for disease management and can lead to improving the patient outcomes.

Keywords: Quality of life, pharmacists, chronic diseases.