Drug Therapy Optimization and Impact of Counseling on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antenatal Care among Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is a pregnancy care. Access to these services enables skilled health care professionals to identify and treat potential risks to expecting woman and unborn baby to ensure safe delivery. Deprived of proper care and inappropriate drug use during pregnancy, prenatal complications may rise. Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of antenatal care and drug related problems among study population. Method: A hospital based prospective study was conducted in OBG department of BLDEA's hospital Vijaypur, Karnataka. A total of 94 subjects were studied and reviewed for drug therapy related problems and were assessed for their knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of antenatal care using validated questioner for two successive follow-ups. Eclectic method of counseling was used to address gaps in KAP. All extracted data was documented and analyzed by paired t/ Wilcoxon signed rank test to report the impact of counseling. Result: Knowledge, attitude and practice scores were increased in the first and second follow-up, significance (p<0.001) of counseling was observed. There were 250 drugs from 19 different categories prescribed by the health care professional. Among that 14 pharmaceutical care issues detected by pharmacist were evaluated for appropriate intervention with health care professional and by providing proper counselling to study population. Conclusion: The present study reveals that there is a positive significance of the Pharmacist led drug therapy optimization and impact of counseling on knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal care among pregnant women.