Abstract
Background:
Patient education is one method used to improve the utilization of post-myocardial infarction (MI) medications, but there is limited evidence on how best to provide this education.
Objective:
To determine if an education session provided by a pharmacist in the community to post-MI patients soon after hospital discharge is more effective than a pre-discharge education session provided by a pharmacist or a nurse.
Methods:
This was a randomized, controlled trial. Patients hospitalized with an MI were randomized to receive usual care (nurse-led pre-discharge education), hospital pharmacist pre-discharge medication education, or medication education from a pharmacist 1 to 2 weeks after discharge. A survey was conducted to assess the primary endpoints of medication adherence and knowledge retention. As a secondary endpoint, drug-related problems were identified in the post-discharge pharmacist education group.
Results:
A total of 14 patients were included in the final analyses. Although there was no difference in medication adherence between groups as measured using the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire or the Morisky Self-Reported Medication-Taking Scale, the post-discharge pharmacist education group scored significantly better on 2 out of 3 measures of knowledge retention (p < 0.001). A mean of 2.75 drug-related problems per patient were identified by the pharmacist during the education session provided in the post-discharge group.
Conclusion:
Despite a limited sample size, our results suggest that providing pharmacist-led post-MI medication education in a community setting after hospital discharge may improve medication knowledge and adherence while providing an opportunity to identify a number of drug-related problems. Additional research is necessary to confirm these results in a larger sample before practice change is warranted.
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