Sabyata Gautam
Associate Professor
Biography:
Ms. Sabyata Gautam has completed her M. Pharm on 2010 from Kathmandu University and doing doctoral studies from Shri JJT University, Institute of Pharmacy. She is the associate professor, in National Model College for Advanced Learning (NMCAL), NIST college. She has published more than 5 papers in reputed journals and has been involved in social works too.
Abstract:
This study aims to find impact of pharmacist’s counselling on medication adherence among diabetic patients in Kathmandu valley. Data collection was done from Jan 2017 till June 2018. In our descriptive cum exploratory study, of total 321 patients, the mean age of diabetic patients was 57.5 ± 12.47years. Metformin 500mg was found to be prescribed mostly (n= 107 patients). When calculated in per day cost of OHAs, minimum was Rs.2 and maximum was Rs. 103.42 with average cost of Rs. 25.10. While undergoing KAP assessment, the knowledge score wasn’t found to be satisfactory, though results on practice and attitude were satisfactory. MARS 5 and MARS were used to measure compliance before and after counselling. MARS-5 contains likert scale questions with total score of 25. MARS 5 scoring after counseling had mean of 24.06 ± 1.54, which was 23.17 ± 2.40 before counselling (P ≤ 0.000). Similarly, the study found the mean values of 8.21 ± 1.24 (before counselling) and 9.03 ±0.89 (after counselling) while using 10 item MARS questionnaire (P ≤ 0.000). Thus, counselling from pharmacist is effective in improving the compliance among diabetic patients. Knowledge and attitude scores of the patients were found to be statistically significant with medication compliance (P< 0.05). Notable improvement in patient’s blood sugar levels (F, R, PP) were also observed after counselling. Since most of the patients, with reference to the self, admitted that lack of knowledge regarding disease was major reason for non-adherence, awareness programs are much in need.
Key words: Diabetes, Adherence, Causes of Non-adherence, Counselling, KAP, MARS