Diabetes mellitus patients’ fasting blood sugar levels and quality of life following brief pharmacist counseling with reminders and motivational messages

Background:  For chronic disease patients, pharmacist counselling with motivating reminder messages has been developed throughout time to promote the success of patient treatment. Diabetes mellitus is a long-term condition. Blood sugar control and an improved quality of life are therapeutic goals in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The objective of this study was to determine whether changes in fasting blood sugar and quality of life occurred in individuals with diabetes mellitus who received pharmacist counselling coupled by motivating reminder messages.Methods: This quasi-experimental study used a pre-test-post-test design with control and intervention groups. Data on patients with type 2 diabetes were obtained prospectively at Jetis 1 primary health care in Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Seventy-two respondents who met the inclusion criteria were separated into two groups: the control group (36 participants) and the intervention group (36 participants). The patients’ quality of life was assessed using the 36-item Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire.Results: Following pharmacist counselling coupled by motivating reminder messages, patients’ mean fasting blood sugar reduced significantly (∆ 34.85±63.36), while their mean quality of life score increased considerably (∆ 13.73±9.22).Conclusions: Pharmacist counselling combined with motivating reminder messages can help patients with type 2 diabetes lower their fasting blood sugar and enhance their quality of life. The provision of pharmacist counselling followed by brief reminders and motivational messages may be considered to improve type 2 diabetes patient management.