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Introduction: Community pharmacist's knowledge about the uses of herbal medicines and its adverse drug reactions reporting can contribute in better therapeutic outcomes and patient safety. Objectives: To evaluate community pharmacists' knowledge about the use of herbal medicines and its adverse drug reactions reporting in Kedah state, Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted among 103 pharmacists from 74 different community pharmacies to assess their knowledge about the use of herbal medicines and its adverse drug reaction reporting by using a pre-validate knowledge questionnaire consisting of 12 questions related to it. The pharmacists' responses were measured at a 3-point Likert scale (Poor=1, Moderate=2, and Good=3) and data was entered in SPSS version 22. The minimum and maximum possible scores for knowledge questionnaires were 12 and 36 respectively. Quantitative data was analyzed by using One Way ANOVA and Paired t-test whereas Chi-square and Fisher exact test were used for qualitative data analysis. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all the analyses. Results: About 92% of the pharmacist had good knowledge regarding the use of herbal medicines and its adverse drug reaction reporting with a mean knowledge score of 32.88±3.16. One-way ANOVA determined a significant difference of employment setting (p<0.043) and years of experience (<0.008) with mean knowledge scores of Pharmacists. Pharmacists' knowledge was significantly associated with their years of experience with the Chi-square test. Conclusion: Pharmacists exhibit good knowledge regarding the use of herbal medicines and its adverse drug reaction reporting. However, with an increasing trend of herbal medicine use and its adverse drug reaction reporting it recalls the empowerment of experienced pharmacists with training programs in this area for better clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The management of type 2 diabetes mellitus requires extra care not only from health care providers but also from the patients. In the health care system of Malaysia, pharmacists are delivering these DMTAC departments in hospitals. Objectives: This study aimed to appraise the effect of pharmacist intervention in the form of DMTAC services on type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in two different hospitals of Malaysia. Materials and Methods: The patients were randomly selected and divided in to two groups. Control group contained those 200 patients who were receiving usual treatment from hospitals whereas intervention group contained those 200 patients who were receiving usual treatment from hospitals together with separate counselling sessions with pharmacists from DMTAC departments. The study continued for one year and 4 visits for both groups. Results: Paired t-test and one-way ANOVA was carried out by SPSS 24. At the end, intervention group patients revealed a greater reduction in HbA1c level as compared to the control group patients (-0.93% vs. -0.19%; p < 0.001). Significant reductions in FBS was also revealed in both groups on each follow-up visits (p < 0.031, 0.043, 0.012, 0.045). Statistical significant reduction was also observed in Systolic and Diastolic BP of the patients (p 0.019). Similarly, statistical significant reduction in cholesterol level was also observed in both groups (p < 0. Conclusion: At the end of the study, intervention group of patients belongs to pharmacist from DMTAC department shows significant improvement in outcomes of diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease and if it is not treated properly it can cause various complications in patients. To improve the quality of life of the patients with diabetes mellitus needs the appropriate interventions from health care providers. The aim of this study was to measure the effect of pharmacist intervention on patient reported quality of life on all domains of EQ-5D.This randomized controlled study is carried out in different hospitals of Malaysia to evaluate the impact of a pharmacist intervention on patient reported quality of life when there HbA1c is controlled by pharmacist interventions. A generic HRQoL tool EQ-5D was used to report the data. To identifythe problems in individual EQ-5D domains and (VAS) mean scores ANCOVA and Logistic regression was used. The average HbA1c values decreased from 10.15±1.42 to 8.21±0.75 in the intervention group (p<0.05). The intervention group showed an improvement in the quality of life domains. Mobility domain decrease from 3.21±0.25 to 2.21±0.45(p<0.013), Self-care domain decrease from 4.11±0.75 to 3.291±0.85 (p<0.045), Usual activity domain decrease from 2.81±0.65 to 2.29±0.85 (p<0.655), Pain/Discomfort domain decrease from 3.19±0.34 to 2.91±0.65 (p<0.065), Anxiety/Depression domain decrease from 3.51±0.25 to 2.21±0.45 (p<0.015) and the VAS mean score is improved from 55.59±8 to 65.62±9 (p<0.005). Patientsfeatures were significantly related with the HRQoL in type 2 diabetes. The significant and positive improvement was seen among the different domains of EQ-5D with the intervention of pharmacist. With the intervention of pharmacist not only the HbA1c improves but also the all health-related domains also improved in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]