Effectiveness of a community pharmacist intervention in diabetes care: a randomized controlled trial.

There is little evidence from well-designed randomized controlled trials of the impact of community pharmacist intervention on the clinical management of patients with type 2 diabetes. It is also not known how sustainable any observed effects on glycaemic control are, over time. This study was initiated to address both these issues. A 6-month, randomized, controlled parallel-group trial in 66 community pharmacies was conducted in Belgium. Patients were randomly assigned to receive usual pharmacist care (n = 135) or a predefined pharmacist intervention (n = 153). The intervention mainly focused on correct medication use, medication adherence and healthy lifestyle promotion. Primary outcome was glycaemic control, as measured by fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c. Sustainability of changes in glycaemic control was assessed by additional glucose measurements 18 months after the end of the study. The intervention significantly reduced HbA1c (between-group difference: 0·5%, P = 0.009). The largest impact on HbA1c was observed when pharmacotherapy changes (i.e., type and/or dose of hypoglycaemic agents) initiated by the physician were sustained with pharmaceutical care: HbA1c was reduced by 1·05% in the intervention group, whose medication was changed, compared with a reduction of 0·02% in the therapy-modification only, group. It was also found that the diabetes education program resulted in improved self-management and better knowledge of diabetes. Eighteen months after the end of the formal study period, the mean HbA1c of the intervention group did not differ significantly from the control group (7·4% vs. 7·2%). This study provides new evidence, from a randomized controlled trial, of the beneficial effect of community pharmacist intervention in the clinical management of type 2 diabetic patients. However, questions remain about the sustainability of the observed improvements.

Mehuys E ，Van Bortel L ，De Bolle L ，Van Tongelen I ，Annemans L ，Remon JP ，Giri M ... -  《-》

Randomized controlled trial of clinical pharmacy management of patients with type 2 diabetes in an outpatient diabetes clinic in Jordan.

Glycemic goals (hemoglobin A1c < 7%) are often not achieved in patients with type 2 diabetes despite the availability of many effective treatments and the documented benefits of glycemic control in the reduction of long-term microvascular and macrovascular complications. Several studies have established the important positive effects of pharmacist-led management on achieving glycemic control and other clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes. Diabetes prevalence and mortality are increasing rapidly in Jordan. Nevertheless, clinical pharmacists in Jordan do not typically provide pharmaceutical care; instead, the principal responsibilities of pharmacists in Jordan are dispensing and marketing of medical products to physicians. To assess the primary clinical outcome of glycemic control (A1c) and secondary outcomes, including blood pressure, lipid values, self-reported medication adherence, and self-care activities for patients with type 2 diabetes in an outpatient diabetes clinic randomly assigned to either usual care or a pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care intervention program. Patients with type 2 diabetes attending an outpatient diabetes clinic of a large teaching hospital were recruited over a 4-month period from January through April 2011 and randomly assigned to intervention and usual care groups using the Minim software technique. The intervention group at baseline received face-to-face objective-directed education from a clinical pharmacist about type 2 diabetes, prescription medications, and necessary lifestyle changes, followed by 8 weekly telephone follow-up calls to discuss and review the prescribed treatment plan and to resolve any patient concerns. The primary outcome measure was glycemic control (A1c), and secondary measures included systolic and diastolic blood pressure, complete lipid profile (i.e., total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], serum triglycerides), and self-reported medication adherence (4-item Morisky Scale) and self-care activities (Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities questionnaire). Data were collected at baseline and at 6 months follow-up. Changes from baseline to follow-up were calculated for biomarker values, and between-group differences in the change amounts were tested using the t test for independent samples. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 77 of 85 patients (90.6%) randomly assigned to the intervention group and 79 of 86 patients (91.9%) assigned to usual care had baseline and 6-month follow-up values. Compared with baseline values, patients in the intervention group had a mean reduction of 0.8% in A1c versus a mean increase of 0.1% from baseline in the usual care group (P = 0.019). The intervention group compared with the usual care group had small but statistically significant improvements in the secondary measures of fasting blood glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL-C, serum triglycerides, self-reported medication adherence, and self-care activities. Between-group differences in changes in the secondary measures of HDL-C and body mass index were not significant. Patients with type 2 diabetes who received pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care in an outpatient diabetes clinic experienced reduction in A1c at 6 months compared with essentially no change in the usual care group. Six of 8 secondary biomarkers were improved in the intervention group compared with usual care.

Jarab AS ，Alqudah SG ，Mukattash TL ，Shattat G ，Al-Qirim T ... -  《-》

Effect of diabetes drug counseling by pharmacist, diabetic disease booklet and special medication containers on glycemic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial.

Suppapitiporn S ，Chindavijak B ，Onsanit S 《-》

Impact of a community pharmacy-based medication therapy management program on clinical and humanistic outcomes in patients with uncontrolled diabetes: a randomised controlled trial.

This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of community pharmacy (CP)-based medication therapy management (MTM) program on clinical and humanistic outcomes in patients with uncontrolled diabetes. An open label, parallel-group randomised controlled trial was undertaken at a community pharmacy in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Patients with a diagnosis of uncontrolled diabetes (HbA1c of ≥ 8%) meeting the eligibility criteria were randomised to receive either the MTM programme provided by pharmacists or standard care. The primary outcome was change in HbA1c over 6 months. Secondary outcomes included: changes in clinical parameters (blood pressure (BP), lipid profile, serum creatinine (SCr) and albumin-to- creatinine ratio (ACR)), types of drug-related problems (DRPs), health service utilization (HSU), adherence, diabetes distress and overall patient satisfaction with the service at 6-month. A sufficiently powered sample of 160 participants with a mean age was 50 years (SD ± 11.9) was recruited. The majority of the patients (68.1%) were male and had diabetes for more than eight years [IQR 3, 14]. After adjusting for baseline HbA1c, compared to the control group, the mean HbA1c level was 0.02% (p = 0.929) and 0.2% (p = 0.47) lower in the intervention arm at 3-month and 6-month respectively. However, these differences were not statistically significant. Nonetheless, within each arm, there was a significant improvement in HbA1c from baseline. Furthermore, the intervention arm demonstrated improvement in BP control (SBP lowered by 3.2 mmHg (p = 0.05) and DBP lowered by 3.8 mmHg (p = 0.008)). During the study period, none of the participants in the intervention group reported hospitalization or ER visits compared to 14 patients in the control group [OR 0.069 (95% CI 0.004, 1.3)]. Patient satisfaction as measured by Patient Satisfaction with Pharmacist Services Questionnaire 2.0 (PSPSQ 2.0) was significantly higher among MTM program participants compared to standard care (p = 0.00001). Patients in the MTM program were eight times more likely to be adherent compared to the patients in the standard care [OR 7.89 (95% CI 3.6, 17.4)]. MTM program metrics showed that per patient, the pharmacists spent a median of 35 [IQR 30, 44.5] minutes at the initial visit and 20 [IQR 10, 25] minutes during the 6-month visit. The number of DRPs had significantly dropped in the intervention arm at 3 and 6-month (p = 0.0001). In conclusion, CP-based MTM program can improve health outcomes and prevent hospitalisations in patients with diabetes. These findings support the implementation of CP-based MTM services for patients with diabetes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Albabtain B ，Bawazeer G ，Paudyal V ，Cheema E ，Alqahtani A ，Bahatheq A ，Price MJ ，Hadi MA ... -  《Scientific Reports》

Medication use and disease management of type 2 diabetes in Belgium.

Mehuys E ，De Bolle L ，Van Bortel L ，Annemans L ，Van Tongelen I ，Remon JP ，Giri M ... -  《-》