Study on warfarin medication checklist for improving patient compliance

Abstract

This study explored whether clinical pharmacists can improve patients' medication compliance with the use of warfarin medication checklist and the correlation between them. A total of 147 inpatients discharged from Shanghai Tongren Hospital with warfarin from July 2018 to September 2019 were randomly divided into the control group and the intervention group by random number table, including 75 in the control group and 72 in the intervention group. There were no statistically significant differences in gender, age, marital status, drinking history, smoking history, department distribution, type of thromboembolic disease, comorbidity and combined medication between the two groups (P>0.05). The control group received routine warfarin medication education at discharge, while the intervention group received clinical pharmacist's assessment of bleeding risk and targeted medication education using warfarin medication checklist at discharge. The monitoring time and value of the international normalized ratio (INR) between the two groups during hospitalization and within 6 months after discharge were recorded, as well as warfarin-related adverse events. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale was used to evaluate the medication compliance of patients in the two groups. Spearman correlation analysis was used to study the relationship between warfarin compliance and variables in the warfarin medication checklist. The intervention group had better follow-up regularity than the control group (χ²=34.3, P<0.001), and the medication compliance in the intervention group was better than that in the control group (χ²=38.6, P<0.001). There were significant correlations between warfarin compliance and duration of warfarin therapy (R=-0.275, P=0.027), number of comorbidities (R=-0.335, P=0.004), bleeding risk (R=-0.433, P<0.001). In conclusion, using warfarin medication checklist can improve patients' medication compliance. Patients' medication compliance was significantly negatively correlated with duration of warfarin therapy, number of comorbidities and bleeding risk. Clinical pharmaceutical care can improve the medication compliance of patients with warfarin, so as to improve the medication results, which may be helpful for the drug treatment of patients with chronic diseases.