ABSTRACT
The absence of dispensing separation between private doctor clinics and pharmacies is the main challenge of theMalaysian community pharmacists. Within this context, the utilization of non-prescription medicines for minorailments treatment is one of the major roles of the pharmacists. This study aimed to evaluate the minor ailmentsmanagement using non-prescription medicines among the Malaysian community pharmacists. This was a crosssectional descriptive study. The entire population of Malaysian community pharmacists (n = 2,730) were invitedfor participation. Data were collected across the first 10 requests for minor ailments management involved adultconsumers in a working day. A total of 173 pharmacists were participated (response rate 6.3%) and 1,704 consumerswith 2,149 minor ailments were encountered. The consumers mostly have one minor ailment (78.3%) and involvedacute conditions (92.3%). Productive cough (7.3%), fever (6.3%), and dermatitis (6.1%) were most commonlymanaged by the pharmacists. Cetirizine (5.9%), paracetamol (4.7%), and diclofenac (4.2%) were most frequentlydispensed and each consumer received an average (median) of two medications. The median duration of treatment was5 days [inter-quartile range (IQR): 3–7] and the cost of treatment involved only medicines cost (median: RM 13.40;IQR: 8.00–21.00) without any consultation fee. The majority of the consumers (75.5%) sought help from pharmacistsfirst without consulting the doctors. Only 16.4% of the consumers were followed-up by the pharmacists. In conclusion,the pharmacists actively managed the minor ailments with an affordable cost of treatment. Guidelines and an auditsystem should be established to enhance the minor ailments practices of the pharmacists.
ABSTRACT
This study was to evaluate the impact of hospital pharmacist-led home medication review (HMR) program onmedication adherence, knowledge toward antipsychotic drugs, and quality of life among people with schizophrenia.This was a prospective longitudinal study conducted from October 2012 to December 2013. This study involved 133people with schizophrenia under the care of the home care team in Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta Hospital, Malaysia.Upon attaining written informed consent, subjects were home visited after 1, 3, and 6 months by the pharmacist toperform a comprehensive medication review. Friedman analysis of variance test was used to compare the differencesof the patients’ medication adherence, knowledge of antipsychotic treatment, and quality of life at baseline and eachfollow-up visit. Subjects had a significant improvement on medication adherence as shown by the mean medicationadherence rating scale scores (baseline: 8.42 ± 1.40 vs. sixth month: 9.47 ± 1.02; p < 0.001) and mean pill countpercentage (baseline: 56.68% ± 39.43% vs. sixth month: 90.37% ± 15.19%; p < 0.001). Subjects’ mean knowledgescore on antipsychotics were improved significantly with the HMR program (baseline: 5.56 ± 1.51 vs. sixth month:7.65 ± 0.60; p < 0.001). Regarding the subject’s quality of life, the “social” and the “family” components of theSheehan disability scale demonstrated significant improvement (p < 0.001). However, the improvement of the “work”component and overall quality of life were not statistically significant. In conclusion, pharmacist-led HMR programhas a positive impact on medication adherence, knowledge of antipsychotics, and quality of life on “social” and“family” components among people with schizophrenia.