OBJECTIVE: Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with high disease activity and multiple comorbidities that may negatively impact the patient’s quality of life (QOL). Furthermore, the presence of complex drug regimens and polypharmacy raises the risk of medication non-adherence. Hence, we aimed to assess the impact of clinical pharmacist interventions on patients' QOL and medication adherence among rheumatoid arthritis patients.

METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted at the rheumatology department in a tertiary care teaching hospital for twenty-two months. Patients diagnosed with RA, either gender and ≥ 16 years age were randomised either into intervention group (IG) or usual care group (UCG). Patients in IG received physician care along with pharmacist interventions (patient education through an oral session, providing validated patient information leaflets (PIL) and 10-20 minutes patient counseling session), whereas, UCG patients received only physician care. At the baseline visit, 3 months and 6 months, the WHOQOL-BREF scale and medication adherence rating scale (MARS) were used to assess patients' QOL and medication adherence respectively. The mean±SD was calculated for continuous data and SPSS v25 was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: Of 320 RA patients enrolled, 298 completed the final follow-up in this study. There was no difference observed in the WHOQOL-BRIEF score and MARS at the baseline between both groups. At 6 months of follow-ups, the improvement in physical health [Baseline vs 6 months follow-up: 24.24±4.01 vs 46.76± 10.77, p<0.001] and psychological [Baseline vs 6 months follow-up: 25.28±7.66 vs 57.24± 12.24, p<0.0001] were highly significant in IG and higher compared to UCG. Overall, medication adherence has been improved [Baseline vs 6 months follow-up: 5.99 ± 2.53 vs 7.91 ± 2.53, p<0.0001] in IG and was higher compared to UCG.

CONCLUSION: This study reveals that clinical pharmacists’ interventions can improve patients’ quality of life and medication adherence in rheumatoid arthritis patients.