Intervention of Screening Programme for Hypertension and Lipid Profile on Prescribing Pattern of Antihypertensive and Antihyperlipidemic Agents

Pharmaceutical Science-Pharmacy practice for good health promotion

Abstract

The aim of the present  study is to assess the impact of screening  programme  for the patients  visiting  community pharmacies  and factors influencing the prescribing  pattern of antihypertensive  and/ or antihyperlipidemic  agents. The study was designed as a prospective cohort study conducted between December 2017 and November 2019. Data were collected from the hypertensive patients visiting regularly in the 5 selected community pharmacies located at 5 Taluks of Erode district, Tamil Nadu, India. The required data were collected either from the patient’s record or interview.  Data were collected from 946 (75.68%) patients of 1250 patients visited the selected community pharmacies.49.4%  and 50.6% of patients were randomly allotted to the control (group I) and intervention (group II) groups respectively.In this study 50.56% and 46.67% of males were in group I and II respectively.  Average  SBP was measured  as 151.5  ± 11.8 mmHg  and 168.1  ± 13.6 mmHg  for the patients  in group  I and II respectively  whereas  92.9 ± 9.3 mmHg  and 92.6 ± 9.5 mmHg  were  the DBP readings  among  the patients  in group  I and II respectively.  Average  total cholesterol  was measured  as 253.66 ± 33.67 mg/dL  and 271.04 ± 39.91 mg/dL  for the patients  in group I and II respectively. The difference in the prevalence is 0.7 and 2.05 for the antihypertensive and antihyperlipidemic agents respectively  whereas  the  incidence  was  observed  as  4.75  and  2.5  for  the  antihypertensive  and  antihyperlipidemic  agents respectively.  The odds ratio  of SBP and DBP is 1.12 and 0.99 respectively  in the group II. The values of multivariate  analysis showed  that  there  is  an  agreement  between  intervention  and  utilization  pattern  of  antihypertensive  and  antihyperlipidemic agents.  It is to conclude  that  the  preliminary  screening  of blood  pressure  and  lipid  profile  showed  many  patients  were  not visiting regularly for consultations. The screening programme has   resulted in good improvement in the utilization pattern of antihypertensive  and  antihyperlipidemic  agents.  The  age,  lipid  levels  and  comorbid  conditions  were  main  factors  among  the individuals which have determined the prescribing pattern of agents.