Pharmaceutical care of patients with metabolic syndrome in Slovakia –⁠ questionnaire

Overview

Introduction: Prevalence of both, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cognitive impairment, is increasing with age. In general, MetS causes worsening of overall intellectual functioning and, also, a worsened overall health status. In elderly, cognitive impairment predicts increasing risk of drug-related problems, lower abilities of medication self-management and lower adherence. Early management of MetS and its components may also help to control cognitive decline and to identify high-risk individuals for potential mild cognitive impairment earlier.

Aim: To assess pharmacists' knowledge of MetS, to assess pharmacists' perceptions of the prevalence of cognitive impairment related to MetS, to determine their attitudes toward expanding pharmacy care for these patients, and to define barriers to expanding new services related to MetS screening in the public pharmacy setting. The study builds on our previous findings that MetS can accelerate a cognitive decline and therefore pharmaceutical care should be accordingly individualised.

Methods: We used on-line questionnaire.

Results and conclusion: The majority of participating pharmacists support the idea that patients with MetS need specific approach in pharmaceutical care (57%) and cognitive screening should be provided within pharmaceutical care (48%). Thus, there is a need for a rapid orientation tool that could help pharmacists estimate at-risk patients with potentially impaired cognitive performance.

Keywords:

questionnaire – Cognitive impairment – metabolic syndrome – elderly population – Pharmaceutical Care