Community pharmacist-driven interventions in COPD: improving knowledge, attitude and health status

Abstract

COPD is a chronic condition requiring care from a multidisciplinary team in which pharma- cists play an important role. We aimed to evaluate the impact of structured pharmacist-patient counsel- ing on patients’ knowledge, and attitudes about medicines and the impact of COPD on patients’ health status. A prospective study was conducted in ten community pharmacies. Patients were counseled using a detailed approach after completing validated questionnaires. The patients returned to a pharmacy for a follow-up after three months. Four validated questionnaires have been used to assess different aspects of patient’s knowledge about the disease, their attitudes about medicines, and the impact of the disease on patients’ health status: COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC), Bristol COPD Knowledge Questionnaire (BCKQ), and The Beliefs about Medicines Question- naire (BMQ). Pharmacists recruited 83 COPD patients, from which 73 patients attended a follow-up visit. Before pharmacist intervention, the CAT median score was 20. After counseling, the CAT score decreased to 18 (p < 0.05). The highest improvement in patient knowledge was observed for inhaled bronchodila- tors (28.2%), vaccination (25.8%), oral steroids (24.4%), and smoking (24.2%). The median score for necessity increased, whereas the harm and concern median scores considerably decreased (p < 0.05) after counseling. The results showed significant improvements in all aspects covered throughout pharmacist- patient counseling. Based on our results, the proactive role of the pharmacist in the care of COPD patients may be beneficial to patients, physicians, and healthcare by improving care, and alleviating the strain on overloaded doctors by containing the costs.