Prevalence of Drug Related Problems in Patients with Chronic Diseases- a Community Based Study in Dakshina Kannada

Abstract

Drug related problem (DRP) can be defined as an event which involves drug therapy that may actually or sometimes potentially interfere the desired health outcomes. DRPs in patients with chronic diseases are more common due to the longer duration of therapy as well as altered physiology in such patients. In addition to this, patients suffering from chronic illnesses usually have multiple diseases and take more number of medicines including over the counter medications in community settings. There is a relative lack of information and inadequate documentation about DRPs in the community setting which may be because of gaps in the continuity of medical and pharmaceutical care. So a community based observational study was conducted in different places of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka to identify and assess the prevalence of drug related problems in patients with chronic diseases using Hepler - Strand classification for duration of 6 months from October 2019 to March 2020 by enrolment of 150 patients diagnosed with any chronic disease. Patients diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses, patients aged below 18 years old, pregnant and lactating women were excluded from the study. Medical information was collected using structured patient interview form and data were analysed and interpreted using Microsoft Excel 2010. From this study, it was found that the prevalence of patients identified for the presence of DRPs was 54.67% and was more in female gender, age above 60 years, patients with multiple co-morbidities and patients on poly-pharmacy. Thus the study concluded that pharmacist interventions play a major role in identifying and assessing prevalence of DRPs and their risk factors.