THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TELEPHARMACY INTERVENTION ON HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS

Abstract

Telepharmacy is a pharmaceutical care provision through a remote interaction between patients and pharmacists that provides patient counseling on medication management and adherence especially on chronic diseases such as hypertension. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of telepharmacy intervention on hypertensive patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research employed a quantitative, quasi-experimental design utilizing a purposive sampling technique to assess the effectiveness of telepharmacy intervention on their blood pressure and medication adherence. Thirty (30) participants were examined and subjected to the study using Wilcoxon signed-rank t-test and Student’s t-test to compare and analyze the parameters before and after the interventions. The results showed that telepharmacy intervention manifested a significant difference in the level of effectiveness of the patient’s systolic profile (p=0.009), diastolic profile (p= 0.766), and medication adherence (p<.001) in the intervention conducted. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the patients subjected to the intervention (p=0.009) between the patients who did not receive any intervention (p=0.798). Correlations between the parameters showed a moderately high negative relationship (-0.678) between the telepharmacy intervention and the blood pressure and medication adherence (p<0.01) which was highly significant. This means that as medication adherence increases, blood pressure decreases. Therefore, the effect size of the telepharmacy intervention was effective in decreasing its systolic, controlled diastolic, and medication adherence. Nevertheless, telepharmacy intervention is not yet fully maximized in the Philippines which can be a potential use in delivering pharmaceutical care. Current findings clearly illustrate the desirability and efficacy of telepharmacy intervention that can be utilized in the accessibility of medications to hypertensive patients