Christopher, Christina Malini, Blebil, Ali Qais, Bhuvan, KC, Alex, Deepa, Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed, Ismail, Norhasimah, and Cheong, Mark Wing Loong (2024) Assessing feasibility of conducting medication review with follow-up among older adults at community pharmacy: a pilot randomised controlled trial. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 46. pp. 843-853.

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Abstract

Background: Medication review with follow-up is essential for optimising medication utilisation among the older adult population in primary healthcare.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing medication reviews with follow-up for older adults in community pharmacies and examined potential outcomes on medication use.

Method: A pilot randomised controlled trial was conducted with 4 cluster-randomised community pharmacies to assess the feasibility of the intervention. Two community pharmacies served as intervention and control groups. Both groups recruited older adults over 60 who were followed over 6 months. The translated Medication use Questionnaire (MedUseQ) was administered at baseline and 6 months for both groups. The outcomes were to assess the feasibility of conducting medication review with follow-up and the probable medication use outcomes from the intervention.

Results: The intervention and control groups comprised 14 and 13 older adults. A total of 35 recommendations were made by pharmacists in the intervention group and 8 in the control group. MedUseQ was easily administered, providing some evidence the feasibility of the intervention. However, there were feasibility challenges such as a lack of pharmacists, collaborative practice, difficulties with the tool language, time constraints, and limited funds. Questionnaire results provided a signal of improvement in medication administration, adherence, and polypharmacy among intervention participants. The incidence of drug related problems was significantly higher in the control group (median = 1) after 6 months, U = 15, z = − 2.98, p = 0.01.

Conclusion: Medication review with follow-up is potentialy practical in community pharmacies, but there are feasibility issues. While these challenges can be addressed, it is essential to study larger sample sizes to establish more robust evidence regarding outcomes.

Item ID:	85699
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2210-7711
Keywords:	Community pharmacy, Feasibility, Medication review, Older adults, Pilot RCT
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2025 01:53
FoR Codes:	32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3214 Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences > 321405 Pharmaceutical sciences @ 100%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200102 Efficacy of medications @ 100%
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