Impact of Pharmacist Counselling on Knowledge, and Medication Adherence in Tuberculosis Patients: A Quasi-Experimental Design

Medication adherence and knowledge towards tuberculosis management are very important to cure and to prevent resistant tuberculosis. The study aims to evaluate the impact of pharmacist delivered counseling services on knowledge and medication adherence levels of tuberculosis patients. This is a quasi-experimental design without control conducted in an infectious unit of a secondary care referral hospital located in rural settings of Anantapur district, India. The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board. A suitable data collection form was used to collect the knowledge and medication adherence levels of the study participants, A total of 258 smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients were recruited in the study. More than half of the participants belonged to male gender with a mean age of 48.1 +/- 15.3years. Majority of the participants had smoking and alcohol consumption habits (30.6%), coolie as occupation (37.9%), and no formal education (36.4%). The mean knowledge score was significantly improved from baseline to first follow-up, and first follow-up to second follow-up, and baseline to second follow-up visits with a P<0.05. There was a significant difference in the medication adherence levels measured by pill-count method at baseline, 1st follow-up, and 2nd follow-up visits with P<0.05. The study concludes that pharmacist mediated counseling in tuberculosis patient showed a significant improvement in knowledge and medication adherence levels from baseline to 1st and 2nd follow-up visits. Knowledge regarding causes, mode of transmission, symptoms, management and prevention of tuberculosis are most important to minimize spread of infection and drug resistance.