Impact of pharmacist-to-prescriber educational intervention on statin therapy prescribing for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in selected Malaysian primary care setting

• Main Authors: Elnaem, Mohamed Hassan Abdelaziz, Nik Mohamed, Mohamad Haniki
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Health 2020
• Subjects: RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/84494/2/combinepdf.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/84494/9/ID%2027.%20Impact%20of%20Pharmacist-to-Prescriber%20Educational%20Intervention%20on%20Statin%20Therapy%20Prescribing%20for%20Type%202.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/84494/; https://www.jpbsonline.org/article.asp?issn=0975-7406;year=2020;volume=12;issue=6;spage=852;epage=934;aulast=

Introduction: Previous research reported suboptimal prescribing of statin therapy for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There is a lack of data about the evaluation of impact of pharmacist-led interventions to improve statin therapy prescribing among T2DM population in Malaysia. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of pharmacist-to-prescriber educational intervention on enhancing the overall appropriate statin therapy prescribing among T2DM patients in selected Malaysian primary care settings. Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental design involving a total of 816 medical records from four primary care clinics. The records were distributed as 412 from two sites subjected to study intervention and 404 from control study sites. The intervention was an academic detailing program offered to the general practitioners in two primary care clinics focusing on improving statin therapy prescribing. Post-intervention data collection was performed three months later. A comparison of the overall percentage of appropriate statin therapy prescribing before and after the intervention was performed in all study sites. Results: The assessment of the impact of pharmacist-to-prescriber educational intervention in the intervention study sites has revealed a statistically significant improvement in the appropriate statin prescribing from 63.2% (129/204) pre-intervention to 77.9% (162/208) post-intervention, p = 0.002. Moreover, the appropriate statin prescribing in control study sites was increased insignificantly from 71% (142/200) pre-intervention to 73.5% (150/204), p = 0.551. Conclusion: The pharmacist-to-prescriber educational intervention showed a positive impact on improving statin therapy prescribing among patients with T2DM in selected Malaysian primary care settings.