ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION AND PHARMACIST INTERVENTION IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Lincy George* and Jini K Bose

ABSTRACT

Back ground: Hypertension is a major public health challenge because of the associated morbidity and mortality to society. The majority of the patients on antihypertensive medication fail to achieve their recommended target BP and it can lead to adverse impact on quality of life. Hypertensive patients can achieve definite outcome and improve quality of life through pharmaceutical care. Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the quality of life of hypertensive patients and influence of pharmaceutical care on it. Materials and Methodology: A prospective observational study was carried out for a period of 9 months in the General Medicine Department of the hospital. A total of 106 patients were enrolled, 53 each were randomly allocated to the control and intervention groups. HRQoL of hypertensive patients were assessed using 36-item short form Health Survey (SF-36 Health Survey) and hypertension specific Minichal Questionnaire. These questionnaires were provided to the patients, at the time of admission and during review. At the time of admission the intervention group was provided with counseling for hypertension and with patient information leaflets on the disease and in control group they received general care provided by physician. All statistical analyses were performed with SPSS for Windows, version 19.0. For descriptive statistics, means, standard deviations and frequencies were calculated. Results: The major patient population were under 61-80 age group, the mean Age of control and Interventional groups were 64.36 and 66.20 respectively. About 58.49% of the patients were men and 41.50% female. In intervention group, physical functioning P =0.0143, general health P=0.0037, energy P=0.0005, social functioning P=0.0001, emotional wellbeing P=0.0001, role of limitation due to physical health P=0.0001, role of limitation due to emotional P=0.0001. In control group physical health P=0.0181, general health P=0.0239, energy P=0.0330, pain P=0.0239, social functioning P=0.0169, emotional wellbeing P=0.0014, role of limitation due to physical health P=0.1593, role of limitation due to emotional P=0.1593 (P value is less than 0.05, showed statistical significance and P value less than 0.0001 showed extremely significant). According to Minichal questionnaire, in intervention P=0.0001 for mental domain and P=0.0001 for somatic manifestation. In control group P=0.045 for mental health and P=0.0010 for somatic manifestations. Conclusion: The study showed that patient counseling had an important role in improving quality of life of hypertensive patients as there was significant improvement in mean score of the intervention groups after counseling was given. Study concluded that compared with control group, the intervention group in which the pharmaceutical care program delivered by clinical pharmacist, significantly improved mean systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure and quality of life of hypertensive patients.

Keywords: Quality of Life, Control Group, Intervention Group.