Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Patients' perception of the benefits of pharmaceutical care services in the management of hypertension in a tertiary health care facility in Benin City

Patrick O Erah , N A Chuks-Eboka

Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.;

For correspondence:- Patrick Erah Email: patrick.erah@gmail.com Tel:(234) 0802 336 0

Published: 12 March 2008

Citation: Erah PO, Chuks-Eboka NA. Patients' perception of the benefits of pharmaceutical care services in the management of hypertension in a tertiary health care facility in Benin City. Trop J Pharm Res 2008; 7(1):897-905 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v7i1.5

© 2008 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: Measuring the perceptions of patients is essential in evaluating the success of therapy and needs of patients. The objective of this study was to investigate patients' perceptions of the benefits of regular participation in pharmaceutical care services in the management of hypertension.

Method: In a cross sectional study, 285 systematically selected hypertensive patients attending consultant outpatient clinic in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City (UBTH) were interviewed on the benefits of pharmaceutical care services they received from pharmacists, susceptibility to health-related problems and threat reduction associated with regularly meeting with the pharmacists, using a validated structured interview format with reliability coefficient in the range of 0.79 to 0.87.

Results: The patients rated medications supply and medication cost information provision as beneficial but rated patient education/counseling as fairly beneficial. However, patient monitoring, provision of non-medication information and other specific information such as side effects, exercises, weight and blood pressure control were rated as “not beneficial”. The services provided by the pharmacists in preventing/reducing health-related problems were poorly rated. While the perceived benefits and thread reduction were not associated with age, sex and education of the patients or the type of medication taken, patients perceived a significantly lower chance of developing health-related problem when they met with the pharmacists as compared to when they did not (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Although the hypertensive patients studied perceived that pharmacists contribute to the reduction in hypertension-related problems, they do not currently benefit much from the level of services offered by the pharmacists. Therefore, pharmacists working in UBTH needs to develop and fully implement comprehensive pharmaceutical care and the Health Ministries should work in collaboration with the relevant professional bodies to ensure that there is effective pharmaceutical care services in all health care facilities.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical care, perceived benefits, threat reduction, perceived susceptibility, hypertension.