Assessment of clinical pharmacist intervention to improve compliance and health care outcomes of tuberculosis patients

摘要

Tuberculosis is defined as "highly contagious infection caused by the bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis". Symptoms are usually associated with a persistent cough lasting for two or more weeks with thick mucus, which may be bloody, breathlessness, unusual weight loss, lack of appetite, night sweating, fever, fatigue. Patient education helps to assist the patient, in identifying and preventing the Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) and help them in using their medication appropriately. Patient education is important in Indian setup because many patients are illiterate and comes from low socio-economic background. The prime reasons identified for prognosis are inadequate education to patients, poor adherence to the medications. The nine months prospective study was conducted and enrolled patients were randomly divided in to two groups i.e. Intervention and Control groups. Out of 120 patients enrolled, 114 patients completed the study. Among 114 patients 81 (71.06%) were males and 33 (28.94%) were females. Comparatively the knowledge and drug adherence score of the Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients of intervention group shows more improvement from baseline to I and II Follow ups which is statistically significant than the control group. Sputum examination outcomes: out of 114 patients, 46 (80.71%) were had turned sputum positive to negative in Intervention group, 25 (43.86%) were had turned sputum positive to negative in control group. The study concludes that pharmacist provided patient education found to have significant influence on patients compliance and health care outcomes.