Assessment of Effectiveness of Clinical Pharmacist Intervention in COPD Patients

Abstract

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized as chronic airflow limitation that is due to airway or alveolar abnormalities generally caused by significant exposure to noxious particles or gases. COPD is one extreme cause of morbidity and mortality. It is currently considered as 11^th leading cause of disability worldwide. Smoking is one main cause where at least four among five people who developed disease are smokers. Pharmaceutical care helps in improving the recovery of COPD patient in terms of health status and quality of life among them. Pharmacist intervention improved quality of life of patients with COPD. The aim is to assess the impact of clinical pharmacist intervention in COPD patients. The primary objective is to assess the effectiveness of clinical pharmacist intervention in COPD patients by providing pharmaceutical care and the secondary objective is to identify ADR’s and Drug-Drug Interactions. It is a Prospective hospital based study. A total of 150 patients were enrolled into the study from Inpatient wards, they were randomly divided into intervention and non-intervention groups with 75 patients each. The study was carried out for a period of 6 months during which pharmaceutical care was provided to intervention group, patient consent form was taken from each patient. care was provided to the intervention group by providing patient counseling and by performing active pharmacist interventions that had increased medication adherence level and reduction in occurrence of adverse drug reactions, interactions in patients. We conclude from our study that the presence of a clinical pharmacist and with the interventions in a hospital setup will definitely improve the health status and quality of life of a COPD patient.