The role of clinical pharmacist in enhancing the health-related quality of life in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is potentially airborne severe infectious disease which requires long term treatment. It considerably affects the physical and mental health quality of the patient’s life. Appropriate patient counselling with the help of Patient Information Leaflet will help to improve the patient’s quality of life and overall treatment outcome. To enhance the health related quality of life in pulmonary tuberculosis patients by providing patient counselling with the aid of patient information leaflet. An interventional study was carried out for six months in 80 patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis from the OP & IP of Tuberculosis and Chest Department of a medical college hospital. The HRQoL was assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire. Appropriate patient counselling was provided with the help of Patient Information Leaflet. In our study, a total of 80 patients were enrolled, out of which 49[61%] were Out-patients, and 31[39%] were In-patients. All the 8 sub domains of the SF-36 survey show statistical significance with improvement in 2nd Visit (after counselling) when compared with the baseline visit. The demographic variables like smoking, low socioeconomic status, allergies, family history show statistically significant association with overall HRQoL. The HRQOL of the pulmonary tuberculosis patients were initially low before the start of Anti-TB therapy, after providing proper patient counselling using patient information leaflet the HRQoL scores were found to be increased on the subsequent re-visits, which implies the need of proper patient counselling and follow-up in PTB for the better quality of life.