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Background The Family Caregiver Medication Administration Hassles Scale (FCMAHS) was developed to evaluate the hassles and concerns experienced by family caregivers in medication administration. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Family Caregiver Medication Administration Hassles Scale (FCMAHS-TR). Methods The FCMAHS-TR was developed after translation, cultural adaptation, and a pilot study. The cross-sectional study was conducted among family caregivers (≥18 years) in community pharmacies. Test–retest reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. Hypothesis testing was used for the assessment of construct validity. Results The majority (68.7%) of the family caregivers were female (n = 470). In the test–retest reliability analysis (n = 30), the ICC value was 0.917 (P < 0.001). In EFA analysis (n = 251), the Kaiser‒Meyer‒Olkin (KMO) measure was 0.799, 62.6% of the total variance was explained by five factors including eighteen items, and Cronbach's alpha was 0.836. According to CFA (n = 219), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.0654, and the comparative fit index (CFI) was 0.918. In construct validity, family caregivers with low reading ability of health-related materials and with high care burden had significantly higher median scores for all the factors of the FCMAHS-TR (P < 0.05 for all). Conclusions The FCMAHS-TR can be used to evaluate the hassle and concerns experienced by family caregivers in medication administration. This scale can be used by healthcare professionals to identify family caregivers who need individualized interventions for medication administration hassles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Drug-related problems (DRPs) result in serious problems among hospitalized patients, high rates of morbidity and mortality, and increased healthcare costs. This study aimed to identify DRPs by clinical pharmacist-led medication review in hospitalized probable patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the COVID-19 inpatient services of a tertiary university hospital in Türkiye for 3 months (between March 2020 and June 2020) and included hospitalized confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients. The World Health Organization and Turkish Ministry of Health Guidelines case definitions were used to define confirmed and probable COVID-19 patients. Six clinical pharmacy residents provided medication review services during their education and training. DRPs were classified based on the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe V9.00. The physician's acceptance rate of clinical pharmacists' recommendations was assessed. Results: Among 202 hospitalized patients with probable or confirmed COVID-19, 132 (65.3%) had at least one drug-related problem. Two hundred and sixty-four DRPs were identified. Drug selection (85.6%) and dose selection (9.2%) were the most common causes of these problems. Among the 80 clinical pharmacist interventions, 48.8% were accepted by the physicians. Conclusion: Clinical pharmacists identified a significant number of DRPs during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those related to drug interactions and drug safety, such as adverse drug reactions. This study highlights the importance of detecting and responding to DRPs in the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objectives: To determine the prevalence and type of medication discrepancies and factors associated with unintentional discrepancies and identify the rate of hospital readmission and emergency service visit within 30 days after discharge among hospitalized patients with infectious diseases and receiving clinical pharmacist-led medication reconciliation during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Materials and Methods: This observational study was conducted in the internal medicine and infectious diseases wards of a tertiary university hospital between July 2020 and February 2021 among hospitalized adult patients with infectious diseases. Medication reconciliation service (including patient counseling) was provided in person or by telephone. The number and type of medication discrepancies detected during the medication reconciliation services, the acceptance rate of pharmacists' recommendation, and factors associated with having at least one unintentional medication discrepancy at admission were evaluated. At follow-up, hospital readmission and emergency service visit within 30 days after discharge were assessed by telephone. Results: Among 146 patients, 84 (57.5%) had at least one unintentional discrepancy at admission. Only three unintentional discrepancies were determined in three patients at hospital discharge. All the pharmacists' recommendations for medication discrepancies were accepted by the physicians. Having COVID-19 [odds ratio (OR): 2.25, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15-4.40; p<0.05], being at a high risk for medication error (OR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.03-3.92; p<0.05), and higher number of medications used at home (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.23-1.61; p<0.001) were associated with having at least one unintentional discrepancy at admission. The rates of 30 day hospital readmission and admission to the emergency medical service were 12.3% and 15.8%, respectively. Conclusion: Medication reconciliation service provided by in-person or by telephone was useful for detecting and solving unintentional medication discrepancies during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to perform therapeutic drug monitoring for isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), and pyrazinamide (PZA) in pediatric tuberculosis patients. The study was carried out in 3 different training-research hospitals in Istanbul, Türkiye between 2011 and 2012. The pediatric patients (aged =14 years) who initiated the standard primary anti-tuberculosis therapy were included in this study. The serum samples were collected 3 hours after the first medication doses were given on the 5th day of treatment. Chromatographic experiments were performed on an Agilent 1100 High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system, and the separation was carried out on a Nova-Pak C18 (3.9x150 mm, 5 µm, Merck) analytical column. In this HPLC method, the gradient elusion delivered 3% to 40% (v/v) acetonitrile in phosphate buffer was used, and diode array detector. Twenty-three children (60.9% male) patients were included with a mean age of 111.70 ± 59.94 months. Plasma levels were measured sub-therapeutically for INH in 14, RIF in 10, and PZA in 5 patients, according to the normal range of adult patients. Maximum plasma concentrations after three hours were found between 0.53-14.02 mg/L for INH, 11.17-60.39 mg/L for PZA, 2.15-16.75 mg/L for RIF. In conclusion, this method has been successfully applied to simultaneously determine RIF, INH, and PZA plasma levels in pediatric tuberculosis patients. RIF and INH plasma levels were found to be lower in pediatric patients with tuberculosis compared to target range of adult patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacist-led hypertension screening program (including referring high-risk individuals who are not aware of being hypertensive or prehypertensive to the physician) at a community pharmacy in Türkiye. This prospective observational pilot study was conducted in a community pharmacy located in Mersin-Türkiye between October 2017 and April 2018. Blood pressure measurements were performed by the clinical pharmacist at baseline and follow-up. The rate of participants who had high blood pressure measurements (=140 mmHg for systolic and/or =90 mmHg for diastolic) was determined at the baseline by clinical pharmacist. According to the guidelines, participants with high blood pressure were referred directly to the physician by the clinical pharmacist. In the follow-up, the number of patients diagnosed with prehypertension or hypertension and the changes in their measurement of blood pressure were identified between baseline and follow-up. According to findings of clinical pharmacist-led blood pressure measurement, 23 (37.1%) out of 62 participants with high blood pressure were referred to the physician by the clinical pharmacist. In the follow-up, it was determined that 12 patients (52.2%) out of 23 participants were diagnosed with hypertension by a physician and eight patients (34.8%) out of 23 participants had prehypertensive. According to the findings of this pilot study, it was determined a positive impact of the clinical pharmacist-led hypertension screening program for high-risk individuals for hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the frequency and types of medication-related problems in older adults receiving home health care services that were identified through clinical pharmacist-led medication review. Materials and Methods: This pilot study was conducted in patients =65 years of age who were on polypharmacy and receiving home health care services from May 15th, 2019 through October 30th, 2019 in Turkey. A multidisciplinary home care team, including physicians, nurses and clinical pharmacist, performed the home visits. Scores on the drug burden index, medication regimen complexity index, and medication appropriateness index, present of potentially inappropriate medications, and the medication-related problems were assessed. Results: Among 100 older adults (74 females) with a mean age of 78.5±7.9 years, the median number of medications used was 7 (interquartile range: 5-9); the median scores of the drug burden index, medication regimen complexity, and medication appropriateness index were 0.5 (interquartile range: 0-0.8), 21 (interquartile range: 17-31), and 13 (interquartile range: 6-16.9), respectively. The problems identified were those related to 'drug selection' (66%), 'education and information' (58%) and 'monitoring' (33%). The health care team accepted 84.2% of the recommendations made by the clinical pharmacists. Conclusions: The results suggested that clinical pharmacist-led cognitive services in a home health care services team could reduce medication-related problems in older adults on polypharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]