PHARMACEUTICAL CARE PROGRAMME ON HEALTH OF GERIATRIC PATIENTS

Around the world, the population of geriatrics is increasing. Health related problems of geriatrics require special attention because these people face many problems, which includes problems associated to health, social support and economic uncertainty. A drug-related problem (DRPs) is an episode or situation involving drug therapy that essentially or theoretically interferes with patient's anticipated health outcomes. DRP is the third or fourth leading cause of death in the elderly. The aim of the study was to evaluate effectiveness of pharmaceutical care programme on health outcome of geriatric patients. The present study was a prospective interventional study carried over a period of three year and the study was performed in 3 phases such as pre-intervention, intervention and post intervention. The drug therapy details of the patients were collected from pre-rounds, ward rounds with physician and inpatient case records. Pharmacist reviewed the drug therapy, identified the drug related problems during ward rounds and discussed with physician and suitable suggestions was provided which had been documented. MMAS-8 and SF-36 are used in the study to find out medication adherence and quality of life respectively. During the study period 770 patients data was collected, out of which 58% were males and 42% were females. The maximum patients were in the age group of 60-70 range (50.4%).A total of 813 drug related problems were identified from 770 study subjects. The number of drug related problems was predominant in males than females. The most common drug related problems was found to be drug interactions (40.9%). Patient counseling and health care information leaflet are the most interventions in the study. Providing patient counseling, it yields a positive impact on patient compliance and their quality of life. The acceptance rate of suggestions and the changes in drug therapy was found to be high (40.1%). Descriptive analysis, chi-square test and t-test are used in this study for statistical analysis. Pharmacist involvement in inpatients care can significantly help to identify, resolve and prevent the drug related problems. Outcomes of interventions indicate that almost 80.26% of problems are totally solved by pharmacist's interventions in this study. Pharmacist in geriatric health care has a positive influence on their health outcomes.