Pharmaceutical care services for patients with diabetes: a systematic scoping review

Diabetes is a major chronic health issue that continues to grow rapidly on a global level. Pharmacists are highly trusted and accessible health care providers. This systematic scoping review of the scholarly peer-reviewed published literature was performed to qualitatively synthesize evidence on all potential pharmaceutical care services that could be offered by pharmacists while caring for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Systematic scoping review.

We conducted a systematic scoping review of the PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases from inception to June 2020 using Medical Subject Headings and keywords relevant to diabetes and pharmaceutical care services. Quality of the articles was appraised using the appropriate critical appraisal tools. Data collected on pharmaceutical care services were synthesized qualitatively.

A total of 56 articles were included in this systematic scoping review. A total of 86 pharmaceutical care services were qualitatively summarized. Services were related to screening for/prevention of diabetes (2.3%), supporting patients (7.0%), taking history (3.5%), patient education (17.4%), assessment/designing care plans (10.5%), efficiency (3.5%), collaboration (2.3%), identification/resolution of medication-related problems (26.7%), dispensing (7.0%), patient adherence (4.7%), saving costs (7.0%), monitoring/improving outcomes (5.8%), and follow-up (2.3%). Blinded randomized controlled trials and precise estimation of the effect of pharmacist interventions in caring for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are needed.

Pharmacists are increasingly included in multi-health care professional teams. Pharmacists are providers of pharmaceutical care services that can improve pharmacotherapy, reduce costs, and improve quality of life of patients with diabetes.