Background and Objective: Khon Kaen has implemented a pilot project to incorporate the accredited community pharmacy with Khon Kaen Hospitals community medical units. These community pharmacies would provide screening and refer people with high risk to confirmed diagnosis and receive appropriate treatment. The objective of this study was to determine the outcome of diabetes and hypertension screening provided by Khon Kaen accredited community pharmacies.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at seven community pharmacies and three community medical units of Khon Kaen Hospital. People aged 35 years or more, were the residences responsible by the National Health Security Office (NHSO) area 7, Khon Kaen who received screening during 1 October 2008 31 March 2009 were included in the study. Data were collected from the NHSO risk assessment questionnaires version 2008 together with capillary blood glucose and blood pressure measurements. People with high blood glucose according to the criteria (fasting blood sugar ³ 110 mg/dL or postprandial blood sugar ³ 180 mg/dL or random blood sugar ³ 180 mg/dL) and/or high blood pressure according to the criteria (systolic blood pressure ³ 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ³ 90 mmHg) would be referred to the doctor
Results: A total of 928 individuals received the screening. There were 230 cases (24.8%) met the criteria for referring which 57 cases (6.3%) suspected diabetes, 145 cases (17.5%) suspected hypertension and 28 cases (3.5%) suspected diabetes with hypertension. However, from the positive screening, only 136 cases (59.2%) had been referred to see doctors. There were only 58 cases (42.7%) did go to see doctors. From patients who went to see doctors, 21 cases (36.2%) did have abnormal values and treatment was started with life style modification, 23 cases (39.7%) received medication and 14 cases (24.2%) were found normal.
Conclusions: This study showed the potential of Khon Kaen accredited community pharmacy in diabetes and hypertension screening. However, there were still some cases which met the referring criteria but were not referred and some false positive screening cases were found. The screening and/or patient referring process should be adjusted.
Key words: Community pharmacy, diabetes screening, hypertension screening
