The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “Assessing the Effectiveness of a Pharmacist-Led Behavioral Intervention to Improve Hemodialysis Patients’ Adherence Using Behavioral Change Technique Taxonomy” by the student Thuraya Safaa Ibrahim and the supervisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Fadya Yaqoob Al-Hamadani, at the Clinical Pharmacy Department.
The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a pharmacist-led intervention to enhance adherence and clinical parameters among hemodialysis patients using behavior change techniques (BCTs).
The study included a parallel-group randomized controlled trial that was conducted in the Dialysis Center of Baghdad Medical City, Iraq, and it included 72 end-stage renal disease patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. The patients were divided into a usual care group (control) and a pharmacist-led behavioral change technique (PL-BCT) group (intervention), and adherence and clinical indices were assessed at baseline and four weeks after the intervention.
The study concluded that a BCT-based intervention delivered by a pharmacist can significantly enhance the overall adherence, including fluid and dietary adherence, of the hemodialysis patients’ their complex therapeutic regimen, as well as improve clinical parameters (phosphate levels and interdialytic weight gain).
The study recommended that further trials exploring the effectiveness of behavioral change techniques with a longer follow-up period, larger sample size, and multi-centered design should be conducted. In addition, the healthcare system in Iraq can utilize the pharmacist’s role in applying similar behavioral change technique interventions to support the patients’ adherence in different disease areas.
