Impact of Pharmaceutical Care Activities on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of Diabetic Patients at a Private Corporate Hospital

Background Diabetes is a disease that desperately needs more pharmacist involvement. Pharmaceutical care and expanded role of pharmacist are associated with many positive diabetes related outcomes, including improved clinical measures, improved patient and provider satisfaction, and improved cost management. Studies have shown that type 2 diabetes is associated with impaired QoL and all domains of HRQoL are affected with diabetes, particularly in terms of physical wellbeing as diabetes increases morbidity and decreases life expectancy. ObjectiveToevaluate the impact of pharmaceutical care on HRQoL in patients with type 2 Diabetes mellitus and to provide education and information regarding the disease and life style modification. Methods A prospective comparative study on impact of pharmaceutical care on QoL in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was conducted in a private tertiary care teaching hospital in South India for a period of 6 months. Study was done on 120 eligible patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus enrolled randomly in the intervention group (with pharmaceutical care teachings) or the control (without drug related educations). The intervention group patients received pharmaceutical care through diabeteseducation, medication counseling, instructions on lifestyle that needed modifications (necessary for better drugfunction) and dietary regulations regarding their prescribed drugs, whereas the control group patients were deprived of anypharmaceutical care till the end of the study. The short form survey -36standard questionnairewas used to assess the relevant parameters (including Fasting Blood Glucose, HbA1c, Body Mass Index) and to evaluatethe impact of the pharmaceutical care on the subjects. Data were analyzed using SPSS software to find out the t-student test. Results The intervention group showed an improvement in the quality of life score from -2.156 0.12 at the baseline to-1.41 0.13 at the final interview (p less than 0.01). The average HbA1c values decreased from 8.63 2.27 % to 7.24 1.39 % (p less than 0.05). There was a significant decrease in the fasting blood glucose from 203.05 89.05 mg/dl to 115.55 39.03 mg/dlbetween the baseline and the final interview in the intervention group (p less than 0.05). The average BMI values also decreased from 25.063.6 % to 24.21 3.3 % (pless than0.05). Conclusion The study concluded that pharmacist mediated patient counseling and the disease, medications and lifestyle modifications will improve the Quality of life and Glycemic control. The assessment of quality of life in patients with diabetes could help to improve patients wellbeing.