Abstract

Title : OUTCOME IN HEALTH CARE EDUCATION AND COUNSELING FOR TYPE-2 DIABETICS BY PHARMACIST AT THA-WANGHIN COMMUNITY MEDICAL UNIT, UBON RATCHATHANI PROVINCE
By : PRAPAPORN SUTTIPRAPA
Degree : MASTER OF PHARMACY
Major : CLINICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PHARMACY
Advisor : NATTEE PACHARAVANICH
Keywords : DRUGS COUNSELING / TYPE-2 DIABETICS / PHARMACIST /COMMUNITY MEDICAL UNIT / PRIMARY CARE UNIT
   
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of health care education and counseling on knowledge and behaviors concerning food consumption, exercise & stress, blood glucose level and drug-related problems of 81 type-2 diabetic patients at Tha-Wanghin Community Medical Unit, Ubon Ratchathani Province, during November, 2007 – February, 2008. The participants were randomized into a control and an experiment group. 41 participants in the experimental group were educated as a whole and counseled by pharmacists individually. Meanwhile, 40 participants in the control group received regular service in a diabetes clinic. Three follow-up studies were conducted at a one-month interval. The evaluation was performed by means of questionnaires and interviews. Statistical methods used in data analysis included frequency, percentage, means and t-test. After the educational and counseling sessions, it was found that the average scale of the general knowledge about disease in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group and the experimental group’s Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) was significantly lower than FBS of the control group (p < 0.05). Even though the levels of health behaviors in both groups were moderate and the experimental group’s HbA1C was lower than that of the control group, the differences were not statistically significant. It was, however, found that the patients in the experimental group had a better HbA1C level than that of the control group. With respect to drug-related problems of type-2 diabetics, the number of problems in the experimental group decreased from 171 problems before the counseling to 71 and 43 after the 2nd and 3rd pharmacist counseling sessions, respectively. Majority of the problems occurred due to failure to follow the prescriptions (59.30%), as a result of forgetting to take the medicine and taking it in an inappropriate time. The other less important problems were safety problems related to drug interactions (26.31%). The results of this research study indicated that health care education and pharmacist counseling conducted in group and individual programs produced an outcome in terms of knowledge enhancement and enabled the patients to control their blood glucose level. A research study in the form of health care education and pharmacist counseling, then, can be implemented in other community health care centers
   
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