Impact of pharmacist's intervention on disease related knowledge, medication adherence, HRQoL and control of blood pressure among hypertensive patients

The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of educational intervention provided to the patients of hypertension through pharmacist with the goal to improve knowledge about hypertension, adherence to prescribed medicines, blood pressure control and HRQoL [Health Related Quality of Life]. A total of 384 patients were assigned randomly into 2 groups including intervention and control groups each having 192 patients. Urdu versions of knowledge questionnaire regarding hypertension, medication adherence scale [MMAS-U] by Morisky and EuroQol scale [EQ-5D] were utilized. Each patient's blood pressure was measured. After educational intervention, an increase was found in mean knowledge score about hypertension [18.18 +/- 4.00], adherence score [5.89 +/- 1.90], HRQoL score [0.73 +/- 0.12] and Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] score [69.39 +/- 5.90] among the IG. The blood pressure control also improved and lower systolic [131.81 +/- 10.98 mmHg] and diastolic blood pressures [83.75 +/- 6.21 mmHg] were observed among the patients of IG. This study showed that educational programs are useful for patients in increasing patient's levels of knowledge about hypertension, improving adherence to prescribed medication and enhancing blood pressure control. This increase is in turn accountable to improve HRQoL

Development and formulation of metformin [antidiabetic] effervescent Granules: To increase patient compliance and its stability study

Convenience of administration and patient compliance are gaining importance in the formulation of dosage forms. Many patients, like elderly people and person with dysphagia find difficulty to swallow the tablets and thus do not comply with prescriptions. So the present study was conducted to develop and formulate metformin effervescent granules. The stability study was carried out for 24 weeks [168 days] at temperatures of 4[degree sign]C, Room temperature, 40[degree sign]C and 60[degree sign]C and at the end, the%age of drug remaining in the formulation was determined. The results showed that the formulation of metformin effervescent granules were remained best stable at 4[degree sign]C in refrigerator, as the%age of drug remaining is not decreased more than 5% and the formulation stored at room temperature, was also found to be very close to the standard at the end of 24 weeks. It is concluded from the study that granules may be another dosage form to use as antidiabetic pharmaceutical product