Publication

Abstract : pHypertension is a common chronic health condition and the major objective of its treatment is to reduce the morbidity and mortality. Despite the effectiveness of antihypertensive treatment, high blood pressure is rarely controlled and it can lead to a huge adverse impact on quality of life. Pharmacists, being active members of the healthcare team can provide interventions in the management of hypertensive patients to achieve definite outcomes that improve patient's quality of life. The study aimed at evaluating the effect of Pharmacist's interventions on blood pressure and quality of life of hypertensive patients. A cross sectional descriptive comparative study was carried out for a period of 7 months in a 600 bedded multi-specialty tertiary care teaching hospital. The study subjects were post discharge hypertensive patients from the general medicine department. Patients served as their own control. All patients received 6 months interventions from a pharmacist. Blood pressure and quality of life measured before implementation of pharmacist's interventions and at the end served as main outcome measures. The RAND 36-Item Health Survey (Version 1.0) was used to assess quality of life. Forty seven patients completed the study, 29.8% of whom were males and 70.2% were females. The mean age of patients was 55.85 ± 10.15 years. Mean reductions were significant (P Value≤0.05) after pharmacist's interventions for systolic BP (17.36±1.676 mmHg) and diastolic BP (9.66±1.007 mmHg). After 6 months interventions, statistically significant improvement (P Value≤0.05) was found in all RAND 36 domains. It was concluded that pharmacist's interventions is effective in reducing systolic BP and diastolic BP and improving quality of life of hypertensive patients./p