The effect of clinical pharmacist-led services with one-year follow-up in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial

Backgrounds: This prospective randomized controlled study aims to assess medication adherence, diabetes knowledge, related treatment outcomes, and quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods: The study was conducted in a training and research hospital in Istanbul within one-year follow-up. Medication adherence, disease knowledge levels and quality of life were measured using the Morisky–Green–Levine (MGL) scale, a 18-item self-structured scale and the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, respectively. Primary endpoints of the study were HbA1c level, quality of life, knowledge level, and medication adherence.Results: The study included 114 patients. Of them, 57 patients were in the intervention group (IG) and received pharmaceutical care services. The mean diabetes age among the patients was 14.6±7.3 years. Of them, 89.4% had low levels of education. Half of the participants were female. Adherence and knowledge levels improved significantly at the end of the study (p=0.021 and p=0.047, respectively) in IG. A statistically significant difference was observed only in the physical dimension of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire (p=0.004) in IG. HbA1c levels of the patients decreased by 1.36% and the decrease in fasting blood glucose levels was also statistically significant (p<0.001) in IG. In addition, 86 drug-related problems were suggested to the specialist, and 81.39% of them were accepted. At the end of the study, 31.81% of patients in the IG reached the treatment goal.Conclusions: The clinical pharmacist intervention decreased HbA1c levels and helped to improve glycemic control by increasing the patients' knowledge levels and medication adherence within a one-year follow-up.