By Lilian Anekwe
Adding pharmacists to a primary care team can reduce cardiovascular risk in in patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers conclude.
The Canadian team had previously shown ‘clinically important' improvements in blood-pressure control in patients managed by a primary care team that included a pharmacist, compared with controls.
This sub-study examined the effect on predicted 10-year risk of CVD, as measured by changes in both the Framingham and the UKPDS risk scores.
The intervention group were given a medication review and a physical examination by pharmacists, advised by a GP on optimising their medication for hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors and then followed up for one year.
Some 102 patients in the intervention group were compared with 92 controls, who were given primary care management without pharmacist involvement.
Patients in the intervention group had a reduction in absolute risk measured by the UKPDS risk score of 1.6 percentage points, from 14.9% at baseline to 13.3% after 12 months.
By comparison the absolute risk in controls fell by 0.7 percentage points, from 14.7% to 14.0%.
Using Framingham, the absolute risk reduction was also greater in patients in a pharmacist team than among controls. Scores in the intervention group fell by 1.6 percentage points, from 12.1% to 10.4%, compared with a 0.7 percentage point drop, from 11.7% to 11.0%, in controls.
Study leader????? Dr Naeem Ladhani, a pharmacy researcher at the University of Alberta, concluded: ‘Adding pharmacists to primary care teams had significant and clinically important effect on predicted 10-year risk of CVD in type 2 diabetes when compared with controls.'
American Diabetes Association scientific sessions, abstract 1093-P.
Pharmacists reduce CV risk in diabetes
