When Does Pharmaceutical Care Impact Health Outcomes? A Comparison of Community Pharmacy—Based Studies of Pharmaceutical Care for Patients with Asthma

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M McLean ◽  
Linda D MacKeigan

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical care (PC) as a philosophy of care and practice model is now >14 years old. It is important to determine whether PC influences health outcomes. Such outcomes are best studied in specific disease states where variables are minimized and specific outcomes have been established. We analyzed 4 multi-site controlled studies that evaluated PC in community pharmacies for patients with asthma. Study results varied widely. OBJECTIVE: To understand factors contributing to positive outcomes from PC for asthma. METHODS: The 4 studies were compared on the basis of 10 aspects of their research design, as well as 10 elements of PC. Dr. McLean conducted the initial analysis, and his assessments were confirmed by Dr. MacKeigan. RESULTS: Important differences were found in the type of pharmacy where PC was delivered (chain vs independent), how pharmacies were selected (required vs volunteered), patient selection (on asthma medication vs uncontrolled disease), pharmacist training (4-h workshop vs certification over several weeks), the nature of PC protocol (computer reminders vs detailed care protocol), rigor of the protocol (intervention vs requirement to reach self-management), and the level of pharmacist adherence to the PC protocol (<50% vs 90%). Differences were also found in study design. CONCLUSIONS: More favorable PC outcomes were associated with use of all elements of PC, independent pharmacies, pharmacist certification, a detailed PC protocol, targeting patients with uncontrolled asthma, and a practice system facilitating PC.

2021 ◽  
pp. 019394592110322
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Hanna ◽  
Jed R. Hansen ◽  
Kim A. Harp ◽  
Kelly J. Betts ◽  
Diane Brage Hudson ◽  
...  

Although theoretical and empirical writings on habits and routines are a promising body of science to guide interventions, little is known about such interventions among emerging adults with type 1 diabetes. Thus, an integrative review was conducted to describe interventions in relation to habits and routines, their influence on outcomes, and users’ perspectives. A medical librarian conducted a search. Teams screened titles, abstracts, and articles based upon predefined criteria. Evidence from the final 11 articles was synthesized. A minority of investigators explicitly articulated habits and routines theoretical underpinnings as part of the interventions. However, text messaging or feedback via technology used in other interventions could be implicitly linked to habits and routines. For the most part, these interventions positively influenced diabetes self-management-related behaviors and health outcomes. In general, the interventions were perceived positively by users. Future research is advocated using habit and routine theoretical underpinnings to guide interventions.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e041506
Author(s):  
Aneesa Abdul Rashid ◽  
Ai Theng Cheong ◽  
Ranita Hisham ◽  
Nurainul Hana Shamsuddin ◽  
Dalila Roslan

BackgroundThe healthcare setting is stressful for many people, especially children. Efforts are needed to mitigate children’s healthcare-related anxiety. Medical play using the Teddy Bear Hospital (TBH) concept can expose children to healthcare settings and help them develop positive experiences in these settings. In this role-playing game, children bring their soft toys and act as parents to the ‘sick’ teddies in a pretend hospital or clinic play setting. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the effectiveness of the TBH in improving children’s health outcomes and well-being.MethodsWe searched the reference lists of included studies from four electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and Google Scholar) from inception until November 2020. We included pre-post, quasiexperimental and case–control studies, as well as randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that discussed medical play using the TBH concept as an intervention. Studies that involved sick patients and used interventions unlike the TBH were excluded. We assessed the quality of the included studies using the Cochrane Collaboration’s ‘Risk of bias’ tool.ResultsTen studies were included in this systematic review. Five specifically investigated the TBH method, while the others involved the same concept of medical play. Only three studies were RCTs. All of the studies report more than one outcome—mostly positive outcomes. Two report lower anxiety levels after intervention. Two found better healthcare knowledge, with one reporting increased feelings of happiness regarding visiting a doctor. Two studies found no change in anxiety or feelings, while another two found increased levels of fear and lowered mood after the medical play (which involved real medical equipment).ConclusionsThe practice of TBH has mostly positive outcomes, with lower anxiety levels and improved healthcare knowledge. Its effectiveness should be verified in future studies using a more robust methodology.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019106355.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (47) ◽  
pp. 103-130
Author(s):  
عبد الغني أحمد علي الحاوري ◽  
محمد عبد الله حسن حميد

The study aimed to examine the role of colleges of education in Yemeni universities in developing the twenty-first century skills among students. The skills include critical thinking and problem-solving; creative thinking; effective communication and cooperation with others; flexibility; adaptation and change management; self and continuous learning; leadership and working with a team; taking responsibility and making decisions; using technology efficiently; understanding and interacting with diverse cultures; and work and self-management. The followed the descriptive and analytical method, using a questionnaire that was distributed to a random sample of (408) students selected from the fourth level of the Faculties of Education in four public universities: Sana'a, Hajjah, Amran, and Hodeidah.  The study results revealed a medium role that the colleges of education in Yemeni universities play in developing the twenty-first century skills among their students. The skill of effective communication and cooperation with others received the highest attention, while the skills of work, self-management and the skills of using technology efficiently received the lowest level of attention.  The study concluded with a number of conclusions, including absence of a vision for the challenges and requirements of the twenty-first century and lack of support provided to colleges to purchase facilities and equipment. The study recommended that the colleges of education should pay more attention to developing the twenty-first century skills, especially work and self-management skills and the efficient use of technology. Keywords: role, education college, skills, twenty-first century, Yemeni universities.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Il-Young Jang ◽  
Hae Reong Kim ◽  
Eunju Lee ◽  
Hee-Won Jung ◽  
Hyelim Park ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Community-dwelling older adults living in rural areas are in a less favorable environment for health care compared with urban older adults. We believe that intermittent coaching through wearable devices can help optimize health care for older adults in medically limited environments. OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate whether a wearable device and mobile-based intermittent coaching or self-management could increase physical activity and health outcomes of small groups of older adults in rural areas. METHODS To address the above evaluation goal, we carried out the “Smart Walk” program, a health care model wherein a wearable device is used to promote self-exercise particularly among community-dwelling older adults managed by a community health center. We randomly selected older adults who had enrolled in a population-based, prospective cohort study of aging, the Aging Study of Pyeongchang Rural Area. The “Smart Walk” program was a 13-month program conducted from March 2017 to March 2018 and included 6 months of coaching, 1 month of rest, and 6 months of self-management. We evaluated differences in physical activity and health outcomes according to frailty status and conducted pre- and postanalyses of the Smart Walk program. We also performed intergroup analysis according to adherence of wearable devices. RESULTS We recruited 22 participants (11 robust and 11 prefrail older adults). The two groups were similar in most of the variables, except for age, frailty index, and Short Physical Performance Battery score associated with frailty criteria. After a 6-month coaching program, the prefrail group showed significant improvement in usual gait speed (mean 0.73 [SD 0.11] vs mean 0.96 [SD 0.27], P=.02), International Physical Activity Questionnaire scores in kcal (mean 2790.36 [SD 2224.62] vs mean 7589.72 [SD 4452.52], P=.01), and European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions score (mean 0.84 [SD 0.07] vs mean 0.90 [SD 0.07], P=.02), although no significant improvement was found in the robust group. The average total step count was significantly different and was approximately four times higher in the coaching period than in the self-management period (5,584,295.83 vs 1,289,084.66, P<.001). We found that participants in the “long-self” group who used the wearable device for the longest time showed increased body weight and body mass index by mean 0.65 (SD 1.317) and mean 0.097 (SD 0.513), respectively, compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS Our “Smart Walk” program improved physical fitness, anthropometric measurements, and geriatric assessment categories in a small group of older adults in rural areas with limited resources for monitoring. Further validation through various rural public health centers and in a large number of rural older adults is required.


10.2196/15060 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e15060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leming Zhou ◽  
Andi Saptono ◽  
I Made Agus Setiawan ◽  
Bambang Parmanto

Background Over the past decade, a large number of mobile health (mHealth) apps have been created to help individuals to better manage their own health. However, very few of these mHealth apps were specifically designed for people with disabilities, and only a few of them have been assessed for accessibility for people with disabilities. As a result, people with disabilities have difficulties using many of these mHealth apps. Objective The objective of this study was to identify an approach that can be generally applied to improve the accessibility of mHealth apps. Methods We recruited 5 study participants with a primary diagnosis of cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury. All the participants had fine motor impairment or lack of dexterity, and hence, they had difficulties using some mHealth apps. These 5 study participants were first asked to use multiple modules in the client app of a novel mHealth system (iMHere 2.0), during which their performance was observed. Interviews were conducted post use to collect study participants’ desired accessibility features. These accessibility features were then implemented into the iMHere 2.0 client app as customizable options. The 5 participants were asked to use the same modules in the app again, and their performance was compared with that in the first round. A brief interview and a questionnaire were then performed at the end of the study to collect the 5 participants’ comments and impression of the iMHere 2.0 app in general and of the customizable accessibility features. Results Study results indicate that the study participants on their first use of the iMHere 2.0 client app experienced various levels of difficulty consistent with the severity of their lack of dexterity. Their performance was improved after their desired accessibility features were added into the app, and they liked the customizable accessibility features. These participants also expressed an interest in using this mHealth system for their health self-management tasks. Conclusions The accessibility features identified in this study improved the accessibility of the mHealth app for people with dexterity issues. Our approach for improving mHealth app accessibility may also be applied to other mHealth apps to make those apps accessible to people with disabilities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Maryam Mozafarinia ◽  
Fateme Rajabiyazdi ◽  
Marie-Josée Brouillette ◽  
Lesley Fellows ◽  
Bärbel Knäuper ◽  
...  

Background: Goal setting is a crucial element in self-management of chronic diseases. Personalized outcome feedback is needed for goal setting, a requirement for behavior change. This study contributes to the understanding of the specificity of patient-formulated self-management goals by testing the effectiveness of a personalized health outcome profile. Objective: To estimate among people living with HIV, to what extent providing feedback on their health outcomes, compared to no feedback, will affect number and specificity of patient-formulated self-management goals. Methods: A personalized health outcome profile has been produced for individuals enrolled in a Canadian HIV Brain Health Now cohort study at cohort entry and at the last recorded visit. Participants will be randomized to receive or not “My Personal Brain Health Dashboard” prior to a goal setting exercise. Self-defined goals in free text will be collected through an online platform. Intervention and control groups will receive instructions on goal setting and tips to improve brain health. A total of 420 participants are needed to detect a rate ratio (number of specific words/numbers of person-goals, intervention:control) of 1.5. Text mining techniques will be used to quantify goal specificity based on word matches with a goal-setting lexicon. The expectation is that the intervention group will set more goals and have more words matching the developed lexical than the control group. The total number of words per person-goals will be calculated for each group and Poisson regression will be used to estimate the rate ratio and 95% confidence intervals and compare rate ratios between men and women using an interaction term. Conclusions: This study will contribute to growing evidence for the value of person-reported health outcomes in tailoring interventions, and will provide a thorough understanding of the quality of person-defined goals using text mining. Trial registration: Clinical Trials NCT04175795, registered on 25th November 2019.


2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 1254-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Whittemore ◽  
Lauren Liberti ◽  
Sangchoon Jeon ◽  
Ariana Chao ◽  
Sarah S. Jaser ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Roberts ◽  
Hannah Dreksler ◽  
Sudhir K. Nagpal ◽  
Allen Li ◽  
Jeanna Parsons Leigh ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Patients undergoing lower limb revascularization surgery for peripheral artery disease (PAD) have a high-risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality and often have long hospital stays. Use of neuraxial or regional anesthesia instead of general anesthesia may represent one approach to improving outcomes and reducing resource use among these patients. OBJECTIVE To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether receipt of neuraxial or regional anesthesia instead of general anesthesia in adults undergoing lower limb revascularization surgery for PAD results in improved health outcomes and costs and a shorter length of hospitalization. METHODS We will search electronic bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the seven databases in Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews), review articles identified during the search, and included article bibliographies. We will include randomized and non-randomized studies comparing use of neuraxial or regional anesthesia instead of general anesthesia in adults undergoing lower limb revascularization surgery for PAD. Two investigators will independently evaluate risk of bias. The primary outcome will be short-term mortality (in-hospital or 30-day). Secondary outcomes will include longer-term mortality; major adverse cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal events; delirium; deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism; major adverse limb events; neuraxial or regional anesthesia-related complications; graft-related outcomes; length of operation and hospital stay; costs; and patient-reported or functional outcomes. We will calculate summary odds ratios and standardized mean differences using random-effects models. Heterogeneity will be explored using stratified meta-analyses and meta-regression. We will assess for publication bias using Begg’s and Egger’s tests and use the trim-and-fill method to estimate the potential influence of this bias on summary estimates. Finally, we will use Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology to make an overall rating of the quality of evidence in our effect estimates. RESULTS The protocol was registered in PROSPERO, the international register of systematic reviews. CONCLUSIONS This study will synthesize existing evidence regarding whether receipt of neuraxial or regional anesthesia instead of general anesthesia in adults undergoing lower limb revascularization surgery for PAD results in improved health outcomes, graft patency, and costs, and a shorter length of hospital stay. Study results will be used to inform practice and future research, including creation of a pilot and then multicenter randomized controlled trial. CLINICALTRIAL PROSPERO CRD42021237060.


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