Evaluation of the clinical pharmacist role in improving clinical outcomes in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Background Lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia set restriction to patients' daily life activities and decrease their quality of life. Adherence to medications is considered a core element to improve patients' clinical outcomes. Objective To evaluate the role of clinical pharmacist in improving adherence to medication, reducing severity of symptoms, and improving quality of life in this group of patients. Setting The study was conducted in urology outpatients' clinics in Amman, Jordan. Methods This was a prospective randomized controlled trial, patients were randomly allocated into intervention group or control group. Patients in the intervention group were offered a pharmaceutical care service and patients in the control group received regular healthcare provided by urologist and then followed for 1 month. Main outcome measures Morisky Medication Adherence Score and International Prostate Symptom Score. Results Among 209 patients completed the study, 105 were in the intervention group and 104 in the control group. By the end of the study, 91.4% of the intervention group patients became adherent to their medication compared to 72.1% in the control group (p < 0.0001). At follow up, the severity of the symptoms to calculated score was lower in the intervention group (mean 15.6 ± 5.69) compared to control group (mean 13.9 ± 5.43) (p < 0.0001). The quality of life score were better in the intervention group compared to the control group at follow-up (p < 0.0001). Conclusion The current findings indicate that implementing clinical pharmacy services can positively increase the level of adherence to medications. This was accompanied by modest improvement in the severity of urinary symptoms in benign prostatic hyperplasia and in quality of life for patients. Hence, clinical pharmacy services could provide beneficence in outpatient setting.