ผลของการให้ความรู้และคำปรึกษาแก่ผู้ป่วยนอกที่มีภาวะหัวใจวาย ณ โรงพยาบาลเลิดสิน / สมสกุล ศิริไชย = Effects of education and counselling on out-patients with heart failure at Lerdsin Hospital / Somsakul Sirichai
This experimental design study aimed at analyzing the effects of education and counselling by a pharmacist on out-patients with heart failure at Lerdsin hospital towards the knowledge in the management of heart failure, the medication adherence and the quality of life. Sixty one out-patients with heart failure, who visited cardiovascular clinic between October 2000 and March 2001 were randomly recruited into the study. Of these, they were divided into control and trial groups. The control group received routine services whereas the trial group received additional knowledge on heart failure management for 15 minutes in small group and counselling on medication individually by a pharmacist. The data were collected before pharmacist’s intervention by face-to-face interview using questionnaires of knowledge testing, medication adherence and quality of life and 25 days after education provision by telephone interview using the same questionnaires. เท terms of the knowledge of heart failure management, the study showed the significantly appreciable higher scores (p< 0.01) in the trial group than in the control one in all three parts: syndromes, risk factor and self care, and medication administration. The total scores obtained were also classified into three levels including good, intermediate and low levels. In the trial group, the number of subjects, whose scores of knowledge were categorized as good, increased from 39% to 77%, while the number of those with low scores decreased from 22% to 3%. Conversely, in the control group, both the number of subjects with good level of knowledge as well as the number of those with low scores, increased from 30% to 39% and from 17% to 22% respectively. Also, in terms of the medication adherence by pill counts, it was found that the trial group achieved it significantly higher (p< 0.01) than the control one. By using the brief medication questionnaire, it was found that the barriers to adhere with medication taking decreased significantly (p< 0.01). To evaluate the quality of life, the SF-1 2 Health Survey was used. The results showed the significant higher score (p < 0.01) indicating better quality of life in mental health among subjects in the trial group. However, there is no significant difference in terms of physical health score between these two groups. In conclusion, the findings suggested that the education and counselling provided by a pharmacist could successfully improve the knowledge of heart failure management, the medication adherence and the quality of life on mental health of the patients with heart failure.