The effects of pharmacists' counseling on patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus; a systematic review

Abstract

Proper management, medication adherence, and changes in lifestyle lead to control of diabetes and hypertension. Counseling patients is an approach to the management of hypertension and diabetes. Pharmacists\' counseling can assist patients in understanding their medications, coping with the barriers of the treatment plans, and receiving emotional support. This study aimed to assess the impact of counseling by pharmacists on hypertensive and diabetic patients by reviewing the previous studies who assessed this subject. Online databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Elsevier, Scopus, and Springer, were searched for eligible articles between the year 2018 and 2024. The terms including \"Pharmacists, Counselling, Outcomes, Diabetes mellitus, Diabetic, Hypertension, Hypertensive, Patients, HbA1C, SBP, and DBP\" were used for the search process. The included original English articles reporting counselling of diabetic/and/or hypertensive patients by pharmacists. A total of eight articles met the inclusion criteria and were involved in this review. The total number of patients was 1,390; there were three studies that assessed counseling impact on T2DM patients, three studies conducted on hypertensive patients, and two studies conducted on patients with both diseases. Counseling diabetic and/ or hypertensive patients by pharmacists resulted in potential improvement in the outcomes of diabetes and hypertension, improvement in BMI, lipid profile, adherence to medication, knowledge, attitude, and practice, as well as health related quality of life (HRQOL). Therefore, pharmacists have an important role in controlling diabetes and hypertension and improving patients' outcomes.