Effect Of Pharmacy Home Medications Review Services On Drug-Related Issues Among The Elderly Population

To discuss and shed light on the role that pharmacist-led home medications review (HMR) services play in determining whether or not drug-related problems (DRPs) exist among the senior population in home care settings. Using electronic scientific databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science, a thorough and systematic search for studies relating to HMR services provided by pharmacists for identifying DRPs was conducted. The date range for the search was from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2018, and the search was comprehensive and systematic. From the searches, a total of 4,292 studies were obtained, however 24 of them were disregarded since they were considered to be duplicates. Screening was performed on the titles and abstracts of the remaining 4,268 research; however, 4,239 of those studies were disqualified because the titles and/or abstracts included unnecessary information. After that, 29 full-text papers were examined, and of them, 19 were excluded because they did not include the result of interest and/or did not meet the inclusion criteria for the research. In the end, ten papers were chosen to be included in the evaluation; however, the publication bias of these studies was not evaluated, which is a drawback of this particular research. In each and every one of the investigations, the HMR services used by pharmacists uncovered a fairly substantial number of DRPs. Potential drug-drug interactions, serious adverse drug reactions, the need for an additional drug, inappropriate medication use, non-adherence, untreated indications, excessive doses, and the use of expired medications were the most common types of DRPs. Other DRPs included serious adverse drug reactions and the need for an additional drug. HMR is a relatively new and expanded function that is performed by pharmacists. It is possible that the effectiveness of such programmes in detecting and resolving DRPs might reduce the expenses and burdens associated with patients' health care, hence improving the quality of life and well-being of the senior population