EDUCATION (COUNSELLING AND DIGITAL UPDATE) BY CLINICAL PHARMACIST IN PATIENTS WITH POLYPHARMACY IN CHRONIC DISEASES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL MEDICINE

Background: As chronic diseases require treatment with an expanding number of medications, the issue of polypharmacy is getting more significant. Polypharmacy can lead to the danger of adverse events, drug interactions and medication non adherence. Objective: To improve patient medication compliance, check whether all the drugs prescribed are safe and appropriate to use, improve the knowledge about their medical state and poly-pharmacy and to check whether there is any drug-drug interaction. Materials And Methods: A prospective observational study was carried in 200 patients. The collected data was investigated for poly-pharmacy and analyzed for factors and consequences associated with poly-pharmacy. Patient information and relevant data is collected in data collection form directly by clinical pharmacist by interviewing the patient and the patient follow-up is done by digital counseling provided to the patient using various sources such as chats, calls, videos. Result: This study was designed to educate patients in poly-pharmacy for chronic diseases through digital counselling means. During the six months study period, a total of 200 patients among which Patients suffering from several diseases have been consumed multiple medicines (8.52±3.58) compared to patients with two types (8.15±4.05) or single type of disease (7.29±3.10), p 0.08. Knowledge assessment score was improved after education (counseling and digital update) by clinical pharmacist (2.75±1.21 7.15±0.94, p value 0.02). Morrisky medication Adherence scale (MMAS-8) score was significantly increased after education (counseling and digital update) by clinical pharmacist (2.83±1.79 7.60±0.66, p value 0.001). Quality of lifeED-5D-5L score was improved after education (counseling and digital update) by clinical pharmacist (1.01±0.78 2.94±1.25, p vale 0.003). We performed Pearson correlation coefficient test to analyze the correlation between poly-pharmacy and quality of life (QOL), We observed that, individuals who consumed poly pharmacy were found with decreased quality of life (r = -0.72 p value = 0.003). This might be due to adverse side effects caused by multiple medications. Among the 200 patients digital counselling by WHATSAPP along with Call and E-mail was done to 16% of patients, WHATASPP and Call was done to 44% of patients, WHATSAPP and E-mail was done to 2% of patients, WHATSAPP was done to 17% of patients, Call was done to 21% of the patients. Patient satisfac