Cardiovascular diseases are widely represented in the elderly and consequently these patients often receive multiple drugs simultaneously. A possible approach to reduce irrational polypharmacotherapy is the involvement of a clinical pharmacist in the patient’s treatment process. The main aim of the study was to investigate the long-term consequences a pharmacist consultant’s interventions in patients with cardiovascular diseases. The retrospective, multicentre, non-interventional, observational study included patients from the Ljutomer community health centre. Patients who were referred to a pharmacist consultant during the period from January 2015 to June 2017 were included. The patients included in the study were 65 years of age or older and were receiving at least five medications at the same time. Pharmacotherapy changes were checked after 2 and 6 months after interventions. The pharmacist consultant’s impact on the treatment guidelines adherence and on the number of medications were evaluated using two different statistical models. 46 patients were receiving 425 medications in total, of which 232 were prescribed for treatment of cardiovascular diseases (54,6% of all medications). Before the pharmacist consultant’s interventions, the patients had an average of 9,2 (SD=3,65) medications per patient, which decreased after interventions to 8,5 (SD=3,04) after two months and to 8,6 after six months (SD=3,07). In the pharmacotherapy of cardiovascular diseases, the pharmacist consultant suggested 94 (49,7% of all interventions) interventions and 38,3% were accepted by the physicians. The statistical analysis showed that the decrease both in the total number of medications and potential type X interactions, as well as the number of potentially inappropriate medications were statistically significant (p < 0,001). Both treatment guidelines adherence and fewer medications per patient were positively associated with the involvement of a pharmacist consultant (p < 0,001). The results of our study show a positive impact of pharmacist consultant’s interventions on the number of total prescribed medications to the patients, as well as the number of potential type X interactions and potentially inappropriate medications per patients and better treatment guidelines adherence.
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