Impact of pharmaceutical care on the health-related quality of life among hemodialysis patients - A multicenter randomized controlled study

The present study was planned to assess the impact of pharmaceutical care on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among hemodialysis (HD) patients. An open-label, randomized control study was carried out at three different HD centers of teaching, government, and corporate hospitals in South India. The patients were randomized into two groups (Usual Care Group [UC] and Pharmaceutical Care Group [PC]) by block design method. The PC group received the normal care along with pharmaceutical care delivered by a qualified registered pharmacist. The assessment of the HRQoL was carried out at baseline, 6th and 12th months for the both groups for a total of 12-month follow-up. A total number of 200 patients were recruited from the three HD centers. At the end of the study, 153 patients were followed. Out of 153 patients, 83 were from academic hospital (UC, n =41; PC, n = 42), 18 from government hospital (UC, n = 09; PC, n = 09), and 52 from corporate hospital (UC, n = 25; PC, n = 27). The HRQoL scores were significantly improved over time in the domains noticed with regard to the "physical functioning, general health, emotional well-being, social functioning, symptom/problem list, and effects of kidney disease" in all the three centers of PC group compared to UC group with P <0.05. The pharmaceutical care provided by a trained pharmacist had positive impact in HRQoL of HD patients.