Impact of Pharmacy Teach-Back Method Counseling for Chronic Disease Management in A Developing Country

Introduction:

Wingate University School of Pharmacy offers an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience elective with a medical mission trip to Honduras. On a previous trip, patients were unable to demonstrate proper inhaler technique or recall counseling points after receiving education from a pharmacist. A proposed resolution to this issue was to incorporate teach-back method counseling. Previous studies have demonstrated that when teach-back method counseling is employed, patient adherence is improved. 

Objectives:

The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of pharmacy teach-back method counseling for chronic diseases in a developing country. 

Study Design:

A pre-post intervention trial.

Methods:

Demographic information was collected from charts with the following inclusion criteria: >18 years old and diagnosis or medications for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or hypertension. An education checklist developed by study investigators included disease state information, medication directions and counseling points and was utilized for all counseling sessions. Following education, patients were asked to recall the information from each section and a coding system was developed to record their ability to recall information. A study investigator corrected any misinformation repeated by the patient. Descriptive statistics were completed, as well as, Pearson correlation and linear regression. 

Results:

There were a total of 21 encounters, with 14.3%, 66.7% and 9.6% of patients able to correctly repeat information regarding disease state, medication directions and additional counseling, respectively. No model, level of education or age, in the linear regression was found to be significant. The Pearson correlation revealed a negative correlation with age and duration of therapy for each section, whereas level of education had a positive correlation. 

Conclusions:

The majority of patients were not able to recall counseling points immediately following education. Data collection in February 2016 will reveal if patients are able to recall information six months after the initial sessions.