Consistency and replicability of a pharmacist-led intervention for asthma patients: Italian Medicines Use Review (I-MUR).

UNLABELLED

AimThis study aimed to assess the consistency and replicability of these process measures during provision of the Italian Medicines Use Review (I-MUR).

BACKGROUND

Medication review is a common intervention provided by community pharmacists in many countries, but with little evidence of consistency and replicability. The I-MUR utilised a standardised question template in two separate large-scale studies. The template facilitated pharmacists in recording medicines and problems reported by patients, the pharmaceutical care issues (PCIs) they found and actions they took to improve medicines use.

METHODS

Community pharmacists from four cities and across 15 regions were involved in the two studies. Patients included were adults with asthma. Medicines use, adherence, asthma problems, PCIs and actions taken by pharmacists were compared across studies to assess consistency and replicability of I-MUR.FindingsThe total number of pharmacists and patients completing the studies was 275 and 1711, respectively. No statistically significant differences were found between the studies in the following domains: patients' demographic, patients' perceived problems, adherence, asthma medicines used and healthy living advice provided by pharmacists. The proportion of patients in which pharmacists identified PCIs was similar across both studies. There were differences only in the incidence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, the frequency of potential drug-disease interactions and in the types of advice given to patients and GPs.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of a standardised template for the I-MUR may have contributed to a degree of consistency in the issues found, which suggests this intervention could have good replicability.