Effect the Pharmaceutical Care and Health Education on Knowledge and Disease Control for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A sample of Iraqi Patients

Abstract

Objective: To study the effect of Pharmaceutical Care (PC) program and health education delivered by pharmacist on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patient’s knowledge about diabetes, glycemic control, blood pressure and Body Mass Index (BMI).
  Patients and methods: A prospective interventional study including T2DM patients with poor glycemic control, i.e. glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) more than 7%. Patients receiving PC and education about T2DM and cardiovascular disease by the researcher pharmacist. Patients were followed for 26 weeks. The study parameters included HbA1c, Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Systolic Blood pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), BMI and Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ-24).
 Results: Thirty-eight T2DM patients were included in the study. Thirty-two completed the program. A significant decrease in the HbA1c and FBS at the end line measurements (from 9.1% to 7.4%, P-value = 0.001) and (from 187.4 to 135.3, P-value = 0.001) respectively. A significant decrease occurred in both SBP and DBP (from 129.8 to 125.2, P-value = 0.009) and (from 82.0 to 77.9, P-value =0.001) respectively. Diabetes knowledge score also showed a significant increase at the end of study (from 52.6 to 63.7, P-value =0.001)
 Conclusion: Pharmaceutical care and health education with continuous follow up delivered by the pharmacist even for a relatively short period of time in collaboration with specialist physician, resulted in improved T2DM Knowledge plus better glycemic and blood pressure control.