ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the most important preventable causes of premature morbidity and mortality in the world. Because of morbidity and mortality and the cost to society, hypertension emerged as an important public health challenge. The management of hypertension involves the long term therapy of a primarily asymptomatic disease, the treatment of which may cause side effects which lead to problems with medication adherence and hence leads to an impaired quality of life. This study was aimed to assess the impact of pharmacist mediated patient counselling on the quality of life of hypertensive patients. The prospective study was carried out at the department of medicine in HKES’s Basaveshwar Teaching and General Hospital (BTGH), Kalaburgi. Patients were categorized into test group and control group by simple randomization technique. Patients were followed-up for a period of six months. At each meeting, the quality of life, blood pressure and adherence were analyzed. About 130 Patients were enrolled, in that 60 were in the Test group and 60 were in the Control group. At the baseline there was no significant difference between the blood pressure and QOL scores. Test group showed improvements in the quality of life score from the baseline to 2nd follow-up (>10 units). This study concludes that the pharmacist plays an important role in the improving the quality of life of hypertensive patients. The study confirms that the pharmacist mediated patient counseling helped in better management of Hypertension and improved the quality of life in physical, psychological, social and environmental health dimensions of Hypertensive patients.