Aim: To analyse the effects of health education (HE) and drug therapy monitoring (DTM) services on modifiable cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and cardiovascular risk (CVR, SCORE) in patients attending a community pharmacy, and to assess levels of patient loyalty and satisfaction with the services provided.
Material and methods: Randomized experimental longitudinal study in 2 groups: health education group (HEG)/drug therapy monitoring group (DTMG) conducted in 11 community pharmacies in Spain between April and December 2011 in patients aged 18-85 with 1 or more CVRF.
Variables studied: CVR (SCORE), modifiable CVRF, loyalty, satisfaction.
Results: Of the 79 patients enrolled, 72 completed the study (36 HEG, 36 DTMG). The proportion of patients with a low cardiovascular risk (SCORE) remained stable at 36.0 % in HEG, but increased from 47.0 % to 53.0 % in DTMG. There was an 11.0 % decrease in the number of patients with a high cardiovascular risk in HEG and a 6.0 % decrease in DTMG. A high loyalty score was maintained in 92.3 % of patients and the number of patients with a low loyalty score was reduced from 7.7 % to 3.8 %. 65.5 % of patients would pay for the HE service and 86.4 % would pay for the DTM service.
Conclusions: Both services improved patient CVR, although DTM achieved 6 % more patients with mild CVR, leading to patients becoming loyal to a particular community pharmacy. After 6 months, 7 in 10 patients would pay for the HE service and 9 in 10 would pay for the DTM service.