Comparison of the sensitivities of pharmacotherapy-related and disease-specific quality of life measures in response to pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care for cancer outpatients: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

BackgroundNo data was available regarding the sensitivities of pharmacotherapy-related and disease-speci c quality of life measures to pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care (PC). ObjectiveTo compare the sensitivities of two health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures, i.e. the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measure of Pharmaceutical Therapy for Quality of Life (PROMPT-QoL) vs. the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), in response to pharmacist-led PC for cancer outpatients. MethodsA randomised controlled trial was conducted on the cancer outpatients of a tertiary Thai hospital. Eligible patients were randomly allocated to a PC group receiving PC interventions or a usual care (UC) group acquiring pharmacist's ordinary care. The HRQoL of both groups was assessed using the PROMPT-QoL and the FACT-G before and after a session. The data were gathered and the sensitivities of the two measures using standardised mean differences (SMDs) were analysed. ResultsA total of 237 patients in two arms (120 PC vs. 117 UC patients) completed the trial. With PC interventions, all eight PROMPT-QoL domains and 3 out of 4 FACT-G domains were signi cantly improved. The PROMPT-QoL yielded SMDs ranging from 0.24 to 1.68 that were considered a moderate-to-high sensitivity, whereas the FACT-G provided a moderate sensitivity with SMDs of 0.31-0.64. The average SMDs of four FACT-G domains was 0.50 and SMD of its total score was 0.80. Eight PROMPT-QoL domains had the average SMD of 0.60 and the total score SMD was 1.40. ConclusionsThe PROMPT-QoL is more sensitive to detect HRQoL when delivering pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care to cancer outpatients.Trial registration TCTR20210809008 on August 9, 2021. Impacts On PracticeThe PROMPT-QoL can be used to assess the impact of pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care on healthrelated quality of life including pharmacotherapy-related quality of life in cancer outpatients.The PROMPT-QoL can help identify drug-related needs effectively.