Context: Relatively few patients with gout receive appropriate treatment.
Objective: To determine whether a pharmacist-staffed gout management program is more effective than usual care in achieving target serum uric acid (sUA) levels in gout patients.
Design: A parallel-group, randomized controlled trial of a pharmacist-staffed, telephone-based program for managing hyperuricemia vs usual care. Trial duration was 26 weeks.
Main outcome measures: Primary outcome measure was achieving sUA levels at or below 6 mg/dL at the 26-week visit. Secondary outcome was mean change in sUA levels in the control and intervention groups. Participants were adults with recurrent gout and sUA levels above 6.0 mg/dL. Participants were randomly assigned to management by a clinical pharmacist following protocol or to monitoring of sUA levels but management of their gout by their usual treating physician.
Results: Of 102 patients who met eligibility criteria, 77 subjects obtained a baseline sUA measurement and were entered into the trial. Among 37 participants in the intervention group, 13 (35%) had sUA levels at or below 6.0 mg/dL at 26 weeks, compared with 5 (13%) of 40 participants in the control group (risk ratio = 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1 to 7.1, p = 0.03). The mean change in sUA levels among controls was +0.1 mg/dL compared with -1.5 mg/dL in the intervention group (sUA difference = -1.6, 95% CI = -0.9 to -2.4, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: A structured pharmacist-staffed program was more effective than usual care for achieving target sUA levels. These results suggest a structured program could greatly improve gout management.