Evaluation-of-the-impact-of-clinical-pharmacists-educational-intervention-on-the-knowledge-of-patients-with-chronic-kidney-disease

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive disease associated with high morbidity and mortality at all stages. Objective: To determine the impact of pharmacists’ educational interventions on the CKD knowledge and knowledge levels of patients with pre-dialysis CKD, and to identify potential predictors of good CKD knowledge. Method: Two main healthcare facilities in Maiduguri, Nigeria, were the study settings for this randomised, controlled, prospective study with a 12-month follow-up. Participants were randomised to the usual care (UC) and pharmacists’ intervention (PI) groups on a 1:1 ratio. The PI group was offered usual care plus face-to-face CKD education and self-management of CKD, an educational CKD infographic leaflet, and telephonic interventions. Categorical data were compared using Chi-square or Fisher exact tests where relevant, while an independent sample T-test was used to compare the mean values of the two study groups. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Result: Baseline characteristics were similar between the PI (n = 73) and UC (n = 74) patients, although participants in the PI group were significantly more female (71.2% vs. 52.7%; p = 0.021). The overall mean knowledge score of the PI group was significantly higher than the UC group at 6 months (18.9 ± 3.4 vs.14.6 ± 4.4, p < 0.001), and at 12 months (19.5 ± 3.8 vs.16.8 ± 6.0, p < 0.001), respectively. At 6 months, a significant proportion of the participants in the intervention group had high knowledge compared with those in the UC group (16.4% vs. 9.0%, p < 0.001). At the end of the study, the adjusted analysis revealed that those between 40 and 64 years of age (AOR 26.3, 95% CI 2.1 – 331.0) and 65 years of age or more (AOR 10.1 95% CI 1.1 - 89.7) were more likely to have good CKD knowledge. Also, participants in the intervention group (AOR 2.7, 95% CI1.0 - 7.2) had a higher likelihood of having good CKD knowledge. Conclusion: Educational interventions provided by pharmacy students/clinical pharmacists resulted in significant improvements in the CKD knowledge of patients with pre-dialysis CKD.