OBJECTIVES : Previous research has highlighted suboptimal utilization of statin therapy among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There was a gap in appropriate statin therapy prescribing to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease in this population. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of academic detailing program on enhancing the overall appropriate statin therapy prescribing among patients with T2DM in Malaysian primary care settings.

METHODS : A total of 412 medical records in two primary care centers were considered for a quasi-experimental study design involving pre and post-intervention trial. There was a pre-intervention assessment of the percentage of appropriate statin therapy prescribing that compiled with the guidelines recommendations with no potential safety issues. A clinical pharmacy lecturer offered an academic detailing program to the general practitioners in the two primary care centers focusing on ways to further improve statin therapy prescribing. Post-intervention data collection was performed three months later. A comparison of the overall percentage of appropriate statin therapy prescribing before and after the intervention was performed.

RESULTS : From the 412 medical records in the two primary care clinics, 204 were examined in the pre-intervention phase, and 208 were assessed after the intervention has been conducted. The assessment of the impact of academic detailing program has revealed that the appropriate statin prescribing was increased from 58.7% (61/104), 69% (69/100) pre-intervention to 67% (67/100), 86.1% (93/108) post-academic detailing in the first and second primary care clinics, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between pre and post-intervention percentage of proper statin therapy prescribing in the second primary clinic (p-value <0.005).

CONCLUSIONS : The academic detailing program showed the potential to enhance statin therapy prescribing among patients with T2DM in the Malaysian primary care settings. Further large-scale controlled trials may be needed to determine the exact effectiveness of this type of interventions in the clinical practice.