KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OUTCOMES: AN EFFECT OF PHARMACIST PROVIDED COUNSELING IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN WESTERN NEPAL

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of counseling in hypertensive patients in terms of their Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) outcomes. Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted in hypertensive patients. Suitably designed and validated KAP questionnaire consisting of 28 questions related to knowledge, attitude and practice about management of hypertension was used to evaluate the baseline KAP score of patients. Patients were then counseled at their two follow ups during their two months intervention period. After the completion of intervention KAP score of patients were measured using the same KAP questionnaire. Results: A total of 82 patients were enrolled and randomized into test and control groups, each consisting of 41 patients. The effectiveness of counseling on test group patients was evaluated by comparing the mean KAP scores before and after counseling by applying paired sampled T- test. Before intervention, the mean ± SD of knowledge score of test group patients was 24.42 ± 5.25; attitude 21.52 ± 2.21 and practice 5.89 ± 1.79, with the maximum possible score for each being 36, 25 and 10 respectively. These scores were changed to 31.79 ± 2.85, 21.84 ±1.96 and 7.07 ±1.73 respectively after the intervention (p< 0.05). But no significant changes were observed in control group patients (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Pharmacist provided counseling is effective in improving KAP of patients towards the disease management.