Hospital Pharmacist
2007;14:283
October 2007

News summary

Pharmacy input improves blood sugar control

Pharmacist input into diabetic therapy can significantly improve blood sugar control, new research shows.

In what the researchers believe to be the first meta-analysis investigating pharmacists’ interventions in diabetes patients, they performed a literature search and identified 36 studies meeting their eligibility criteria.

The pharmacy interventions most commonly seen were patient education and medicines management, and the studies were conducted in settings including hospital wards, medical clinics, and community pharmacies.

The researchers found that haemoglobin A_1C was sensitive to improvements from pharmacy intervention from both clinical and statistical perspectives. Fasting plasma glucose levels and systolic blood pressure were found to be “possibly sensitive” to pharmacist interventions, and lipid levels, adherence, knowledge and quality of life were “probably not sensitive” (The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2007;41:1569–82).