Objectives:
To implement and assess hospital-based pharmaceutical care services
for patients with asthma.
Methods: A prospective, randomized, controlled study was conducted
in Shaab teaching hospital, Khartoum, Sudan. Patients were allocated
randomly either in the intervention group (60) or control group
(40) patients. The drug therapy of asthma for the patients in
the intervention group was reviewed by a trained pharmacist, and
interventions were suggested to the attending physicians for the
identified problems. Intervention patients received comprehensive
medication counselling and asthma education every 2 weeks, while
the control group received the routine medical consultation and
dispensing services. The outcome measures were recorded using
structured forms at baseline and monitored during a follow-up
of every two weeks for 6 months in both groups. Data were analyzed
using SPSS version 13, level of significance was p<0.05.
Results: At the end of the study period the mean reduction in
frequency of acute attacks (1.91; SD=0.18 vs. 1.0; SD=0.14; p=0.03),
nocturnal asthma symptoms (3.5; SD=0.3 vs. 1.1; SD=0.2; p=0.02)
and frequency of using inhaled ß2 agonists per week (19.9;
SD= 2.1 vs. 3.3; SD=0.3; p=0.01) were significantly greater in
the intervention group compared to control. A significant mean
reduction (p=0.002) in the days of sickness/week was in the intervention
group, while in control group there was an increase in mean days
of sickness/week. The intervention group showed a significant
greater improvement in the score for assessing the inhalation
technique (p<0.001), patient’s knowledge about asthma (p<0.001),
and its drug-therapy (p=0.01) compared with control.
Conclusion: The present findings suggest that pharmacist’s intervention
can have positive impact on asthma-related outcomes in patients.
