Anticoagulation Counseling Helps Patients Retain Key Info

HealthDay News – Just over two-thirds of patients retain an “acceptable” amount of key information following warfarin counseling, according to a small study published online August 6 in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research.

Nashwa Masnoon, BPharm, from the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, and colleagues evaluated the extent to which 22 patients retained information after counseling from a clinical pharmacist about the anticoagulant warfarin. The authors used assessments immediately after counseling and 6 weeks after counseling. Patients newly initiated warfarin in the hospital, had intact cognition, and were expected to self-administer warfarin after discharge.

Researchers found that patients recalled an average of 79.9% of key information elements immediately after counseling, which was significantly higher than that seen at 6 weeks after counseling (71.0%; P=.02). The proportion of patients who achieved an “acceptable” score for knowledge was 68.2% at the immediate assessment and 6 weeks later. 

Six weeks after counseling, there were no significant relationships seen between specific case characteristics and patient outcomes, duration of counseling, or overall warfarin knowledge retention scores.

“These findings imply that more emphasis should be placed on educating patients on the critical information elements for warfarin counseling,” the authors wrote.

Reference

Masnoon N, Sorich W, Alderman CP. A study of consumer retention of key information provided by clinical pharmacists during anticoagulant counseling. J Pharm Pract. 2016. doi:10.1002/jppr.1187.