The impact of clinical pharmacist support on patients receiving multi-drug therapy for coronary heart disease in China: a long-term follow-up study

Objectives This study evaluated the long-term effect of pharmacist support on patient self-care ability, quality of life, drug therapy compliance, treatment goals, and adverse drug reactions in coronary heart disease patients receiving multi-drug therapy. Methods Ninety patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=45) or a control group (n=45). The control group received conventional clinical care. The experimental group received clinical care plus pharmacist support that included medication review, patient education, lifestyle management, discharge guidance, and telephone follow-up. Treatment goals included blood pressure, rates of diabetes and dyslipidaemia, average heart rate and body mass index. Data were collected after admission, immediately before discharge, and 6months after discharge. Results Eighty-five patients completed the study. Upon discharge from hospital, the experimental group understood their condition better than the control group (p<0.05), and there were also significant differences between the groups in understanding treatment goals and drug regimens, health-promoting lifestyle modifications, psychogenic disorders, and satisfaction evaluations (p<0.01). At the 6-month follow-up, drug therapy compliance was significantly better in the experimental group compared to controls (93.396.56% vs 79.36 +/- 15.46%; p<0.01), as was the success rate by intention-to-treat (77.8% vs 48.9%) and per protocol (81.4% vs 52.4%). Two adverse drug reactions occurred in the experimental group and three occurred in the control group. Conclusions Clinical pharmacist support improves self-care ability, quality of life, drug therapy compliance, and treatment success in coronary heart disease patients.