ADHEFAP: ensayo clínico para evaluar una intervención telefónica educacional-conductual por el farmacéutico de atención primaria en la mejora de la adherencia terapéutica

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the improvement in therapeutic adherence of an intervention based on telephone monitoring by the primary care pharmacist. DESIGN: Randomized open controlled trial. LOCATION: This study was carried out in 2021 by a multidisciplinary team working with health professionals of thirteen health centers belonging to four health districts in Community of Madrid, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: These were patients (60-74 years) with polipharmacy classified as non-adherent according to the Morisky-Green test. Two hundred and twenty-four patients were originally enrolled, 87 of them were non-adherents. Of these, 15 were lost and 72 were finally randomized. Seventy-one patients completed the study (33 intervention group and 38 control group). INTERVENTIONS: Patients randomized to the intervention arm were included in a follow-up telephone program consisting of an interview at months 1, 2, and 3 to improve adherence. The Morisky-Green test was repeated at month 4 to assess improvement. In the control group this test was only performed at month 4. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Adherence measured by Morisky-Green at baseline and at 4th month. RESULTS: The 72.7% of patients in the intervention group became adherent while only 34.2% did in the control arm, being the difference 38.5% (95% CI: 17.1-59.9), statistically significant (P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: After a follow-up educational-behavioral telephone intervention in non-adherent patients by the primary care pharmacist, therapeutic adherence was improved statistically significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group.