Oct-Dec, 2011 - Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice

Anoop P -Impact of Clinical Pharmacists Counseling on Quality of Life in patients with Congestive Cardiac Failure.The reasons cited for non-compliance by the patients are:5(9.8%) forgetfulness, 5 (9.8%) confusion, 1 (1.9%) apathy,2(3.9%) could not afford the cost of the medication and 3(5.8%) others as their reasons for non-adherence (Fig.4).Table 4: Compliance score distributionSCORE FOLLOW UP 1 FOLLOW UP 3(2-weeks)(6- weeks)≤60 --------- --------61-90 4(5.71%) 10(14.28%)≥90 9(12.8%) 26(37.14%)DISCUSSIONFig.4Patient counseling is an integral part of Clinical Pharmacyactivities, since it provides an opportunity for Pharmacist tointeract with patient and establish a continuing relationshipwith patients.An attempt has been made to carry out the work to the best ofthe ability of the department and persons involved. The resultswere classified under following broad categories:1. Baseline characteristics.2. Quality of life.3. Medication Compliance.Baseline characteristicsOut of the 70 patients enrolled in the study, males exceededfemales in number. The number of patients in the age group of56-65 and 46-55 were almost equal. The number of patients inage group ≥66 dominated the study because this age group ismost affected by the disease condition which are focused inthis study and actively utilizing the health care system.The numbers of patients taking more than 4 drugs weredominant over the number of patients taking ≤ 2 and 3groups. Most of the patients were on 4 drug therapy. Patientswith duration of disease of 3 years and less dominated othergroups of 4-6years and 6 years or above. Newly diagnosedpatients tend to remain with the healthcare system and as thetime progresses dropout increases due to increaseddependency on others, this resulted in more number ofpatients in 3year group.Patients with Ejection fraction of ≥41 dominated others.The number of patients in NYHA class 1 and class 2 are equaland are more in number compared to class3 and class 4.Quality of lifeQuality of life can be influenced by various factors such asgender, age, number of drugs consumed, and duration ofdisease. While studying the effect of Quality of life each of thementioned factors was taken into consideration and itsinfluence was analyzed separately.In a study conducted by Gabriel. E soto et al 2004 and Green.[19]et al 2000 , QOL was measured by the Kansas CityCardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). The KCCQ scorewas compared between baseline and final follow-up. TheKCCQ had a significant reduction with basal condition fromthe first evaluation. Similarly in our study the mean score inthe first, second and third follow up were significantcompared to baseline (P