The Help for Hay Fever community pharmacy-based pilot randomised controlled trial for intermittent allergic rhinitis

Sarah Smith, Terry Porteous* (Corresponding Author), Christine Bond, Jill Francis, Amanda J Lee, Richard Lowrie, Graham Scotland, Aziz Sheikh, Mike Thomas, Sally Wyke, Lorraine Smith

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Management of intermittent allergic rhinitis (IAR) is suboptimal in the UK. An Australian community pharmacy-based intervention has been shown to help patients better self-manage their IAR. We conducted a pilot cluster-RCT in twelve Scottish community pharmacies to assess transferability of the Australian intervention. Trained staff in intervention pharmacies delivered the intervention to eligible customers (n=60). Non-intervention pharmacy participants (n=65) received usual care. Outcome measures included effect size of change in the mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (miniRQLQ) between baseline, 1-week and 6-week follow-up. Trial procedures were well received by pharmacy staff, and customer satisfaction with the intervention was high. The standardised effect size for miniRQLQ total score was -0.46 (95% CI, -1.05, 0.13) for all participants and -0.14 (95% CI,-0.86, 0.57) in the complete case analysis, suggesting a small overall treatment effect in the intervention group. A full scale RCT is warranted to fully evaluate the effectiveness of this service.
Original languageEnglish
Article number23
Pages (from-to)23
Number of pages8
Journalnpj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine
Volume30
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government for funding this study and also all participating community pharmacists for their co-operation in training and recruitment, and all pharmacy customers for taking part in the trial.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
All authors participated in the design of the trial, were members of the project steering group, contributed to and critically commented on draft versions, read and approved the final manuscript.

DATA AVAILABILITY
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request

Keywords

  • respiratory
  • allergy
  • community pharmacy
  • self-care
  • DIAGNOSIS
  • MANAGEMENT
  • GUIDELINES
  • VALIDATION
  • ADULTS
  • IMPACT
  • ASTHMA
  • QUALITY-OF-LIFE
  • HEALTH
  • BURDEN

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