Empowering Hypertensive Patients in South Africa to Improve Their Disease Management: A Pharmacist-Led Intervention

OBJECTIVE: Uncontrolled hypertension negatively impacts on mortality. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a pharmacist-led patient counseling and education model to empower hypertensive patients on chronic medication. METHODS: This was an operational research project with a quasi-experimental design including an intervention group (55 patients) and a control group (31 patients) of chronic hypertensive patients. The data were collected with interview-administered questionnaires, and were analyzed using SAS(®) version 9.4. Pharmacist interventions included an educational diary on hypertension management and patient counseling. FINDINGS: A 34.7% improvement was observed in patients’ understanding of what normal blood pressure (BP) is in the intervention group compared to the control group (P < 0.001), whereas a 9.1% improvement was also observed in the intervention group in their knowledge about the fact that systolic BP and diastolic BP are both important in controlling hypertension, with no change in the control group. After the intervention, 40.0% of patients in the intervention group versus 17.9% in the control group had adequate knowledge (≥75% correct answers) about hypertension and its management. Pharmacist interventions were well received by the majority of patients (>90%). CONCLUSION: A pharmacist-led patient counseling and education model can help improve patients’ hypertension knowledge and BP control. These should increasingly become routine, aiming to improve chronic disease management.