A study on Potential Role of Pharmacists in Home Health Drug Related Problem Management in India

Purpose: Provision of pharmaceutical care at home is more suitable environment, getting to know the patient and assessing the level of support required in medication use is an expanding role for pharmacist. 

Methods: To assess the scenario of medication use at home, a survey was designed to assess medicine literacy, medication knowledge and willingness of clients at home for receiving home care pharmaceutical services. A set of questions in local language was drafted to collect adult literacy in medicine using REALM-R. The medication knowledge assessment form was provided to 200 randomly selected subjects in rural community. 

Results: Among the 200 participants, 120(60%) were males and 80(40%) were females. The mean age of the respondents was 42.5 years. 48(24%) were illiterate, 92(46%) were higher secondary. Medicine literacy assessed using REALM-R mean score was found to be 6.24 out of 11 words. In medication knowledge assessment mean number of medications per patient was 1.88. Among the basic medication knowledge, they were able to answer correctly at the average of 4.1. As many as 91.4% of the medications were stored in room temperature. Willingness to know more about medication usage amounted to mean score was found to be 8.82 out of 10.

Conclusion: From the data gathered it can be deduced that medication knowledge and adult medicine literacy among Indian population is less and needs pharmacist to take adequate measure to educate clients on medication use and one such way is through home pharmaceutical care. This also provides an opportunity for identify roles and rapport with patient for provision of effective care.