ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of pharmacist counseling on empowering people with diabetes to better self-care. INTRODUCTION: Community-based pharmacists can play a key role in educating and empowering people in such programs. METHODS: A randomized trial compared the effects of pharmacist counseling (intervention group) with printed materials (control group) in diabetic beneficiaries of several employer-based health care plans. All participants also received waiver of out-of-pocket expenses for diabetic-related medications and supplies. Clinical, humanistic, and claim outcomes were evaluated at baseline and at 1 year follow-up. RESULTS: Sixty-seven beneficiaries participated in this study. The 0.50% decrease from baseline in glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) was statistically significant (P = .0008) in the intervention group and the difference between the groups approached statistical significance (P = .076). Beneficiaries in both groups had greater claim costs for diabetic-related medications and supplies during the study year. Both groups also improved in ability to manage their diabetes with the counseling group showing a significantly better understanding of diabetes (P = .0024). CONCLUSION: There was a trend toward improvement in A1c in patients counseled by pharmacist with an increased utilization of diabetes-related medications and supplies. Counseling also improved diabetes knowledge and empowered patients to better diabetes management.
Subject(s)
Community Pharmacy Services/organization & administration , Counseling/methods , Diabetes Mellitus/economics , Pharmacists/organization & administration , Self Care/methods , Adult , Diabetes Mellitus/psychology , Diabetes Mellitus/therapy , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Glycated Hemoglobin/metabolism , Health Benefit Plans, Employee/economics , Health Planning/methods , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pamphlets , Patient Education as Topic , Self Care/psychology , Statistics as TopicABSTRACT
Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor for development of coronary heart disease. Proper diagnosis and adequate treatment are vital to reducing morbidity and mortality associated with elevated serum lipid levels. The amount of literature in this area is overwhelming. To aid practitioners and educators in organizing this large body of information, we compiled key articles, guidelines, and consensus papers relative to the treatment of dyslipidemias. Research articles were chosen based on the significance of findings, relevance to practice, quality of research, and timeliness; recent articles were given priority over earlier ones unless they demonstrated groundbreaking findings.