Roland Nnaemeka Okoro

orolandn@gmail.com

  • Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Maiduguri. Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Evaluation of the Impact of Clinical Pharmacists’ Educational Intervention on the Knowledge of Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

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    Abstract

    Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive disease associated with high morbidity and mortality at all stages. Objective: To determine the impact of pharmacists’ educational interventions on the CKD knowledge and knowledge levels of patients with pre-dialysis CKD, and to identify potential predictors of good CKD knowledge. Method: Two main healthcare facilities in Maiduguri, Nigeria, were the study settings for this randomised, controlled, prospective study with a 12-month follow-up. Participants were randomised to the usual care (UC) and pharmacists’ intervention (PI) groups on a 1:1 ratio. The PI group was offered usual care plus face-to-face CKD education and self-management of CKD, an educational CKD infographic leaflet, and telephonic interventions. Categorical data were compared using Chi-square or Fisher exact tests where relevant, while an independent sample T-test was used to compare the mean values of the two study groups. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Result: Baseline characteristics were similar between the PI (n = 73) and UC (n = 74) patients, although participants in the PI group were significantly more female (71.2% vs. 52.7%; p = 0.021). The overall mean knowledge score of the PI group was significantly higher than the UC group at 6 months (18.9 ± 3.4 vs.14.6 ± 4.4, p < 0.001), and at 12 months (19.5 ± 3.8 vs.16.8 ± 6.0, p < 0.001), respectively. At 6 months, a significant proportion of the participants in the intervention group had high knowledge compared with those in the UC group (16.4% vs. 9.0%, p < 0.001). At the end of the study, the adjusted analysis revealed that those between 40 and 64 years of age (AOR 26.3, 95% CI 2.1 – 331.0) and 65 years of age or more (AOR 10.1 95% CI 1.1 – 89.7) were more likely to have good CKD knowledge. Also, participants in the intervention group (AOR 2.7, 95% CI1.0 – 7.2) had a higher likelihood of having good CKD knowledge. Conclusion: Educational interventions provided by pharmacy students/clinical pharmacists resulted in significant improvements in the CKD knowledge of patients with pre-dialysis CKD.