Improving the well-being of elderly patients via community pharmacy-based provision of pharmaceutical care - A multicentre study in seven European countries

Objective: This study aimed to measure the outcomes of a harmonised, struct ured pharmaceutical care programme provided to elderly patients: (greater t han or equal to 65 years of age) by community pharmacists in a multicentre international study performed in 7 European countries. Design and setting: The study was a randomised, controlled. longitudinal, c linical trial with repeated measures performed over an Is-month period. A t otal of 104 intervention and 86 control pharmacy sites participated in the research and 1290 intervention patients and 1164 control patients were recr uited into the study. Main outcome measures and results: A general decline in health-related qual ity of lift: over time was observed in the pooled data; however, significan t improvements were achieved in patients involved in the pharmaceutical car e programme in some countries. Intervention patients reported better contro l of their medical conditions as a result of the study and cost savings ass ociated with pharmaceutical care provision were observed in most countries. The new structured service was well accepted by intervention patients and patient satisfaction with the services improved during the study. The pharm acists involved in providing pharmaceutical care had a positive opinion on the new approach, as did the majority of general practitioners surveyed. Th e positive effects appear to have been achieved via social and psychosocial aspects of the intervention, such as the increased support provided by com munity pharmacists, rather than via biomedical mechanisms. Conclusions: This study is the first large-scale, multicentre study to inve stigate the effects of pharmaceutical care provision by community pharmacis ts to elderly patients. Future research methodology and implementation will be informed by the experience gained from this challenging trial.