Sharrel Pinto

The objective of this prospective, pre-post longitudinal study was to assess the impact of pharmacist-provided medication therapy management (MTM) services on employees' health and well-being by evaluating their clinical and humanistic outcomes. City of Toledo employees and/or their spouses and dependents with diabetes with or without comorbid conditions were enrolled in the pharmacist-conducted MTM program. Participants scheduled consultations with the pharmacist at predetermined intervals. Overall health outcomes, such as clinical markers, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), disease knowledge, and social and process measures, were documented at these visits and assessed for improvement. Changes in patient outcomes over time were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank and Friedman test at an a priori level of 0.05. Spearman correlation was used to measure the relationship between clinical and humanistic outcomes. A total of 101 patients enrolled in the program. At the end of 1 year, patients' A1c levels decreased on average by 0.27 from their baseline values. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure also decreased on average by 6.0 and 4.2 mmHg, respectively. Patient knowledge of disease conditions and certain aspects or components of HRQoL also improved. Improvements in social and process measures also were also observed. Improved clinical outcomes and quality of life can affect employee productivity and help reduce costs for employers by reducing disease-related missed days of work. Employers seeking to save costs and impact productivity can utilize the services provided by pharmacists.

The purpose of this observational study was to determine if the Protection Motivation Theory could predict and explain adherence to aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy among breast cancer survivors. Purposive sampling was used to identify 288 survivors who had been prescribed AI therapy. A valid and reliable survey was mailed to survivors. A total of 145 survivors completed the survey. The Morisky scale was used to measure adherence to AI. The survivors reported a mean score of 6.84 (±0.66) on the scale. Nearly 4 in 10 survivors (38%) were non-adherent. Adherence differed by age, marital status, insurance status, income, and presence of co-morbid conditions. Self-efficacy (r=0.485), protection motivation (r=0.310), and Response Efficacy (r=0.206) were positively and significantly correlated with adherence. Response Cost (r=-0.235) was negatively correlated with adherence. The coping appraisal constructs were statistically significant predictors medication adherence (β=0.437) with self-efficacy being the strongest significant predictor of adherence (β = 0.429).