Worldwide characteristics and trends of pharmacist interventions contributed to minimize health disparities

Health disparities in outcomes are ubiquitous and must be addressed. Pharmacist-led clinical services have been shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. However, their involvement in addressing health disparities has not been well documented. We conducted a literature review to summarize worldwide pharmacist-involved interventions that contributed to reducing health disparities. The overarching goal is to provide guidance on future directions to advance health equity. PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and CINAHL were searched from inception to October 2021. Studies included were those that evaluated pharmacist-involved interventions contributing to the mitigation of health disparities. Pilot or preliminary studies and those published in non-English languages were excluded. Study characteristics, clinical areas, targeted patient population, types of interventions, and outcomes were evaluated. A total of 151 studies were included, of which 27% were randomized controlled trials. The majority of studies (82%) conducted in high-income countries targeted cardiometabolic conditions (49%). Infectious diseases were commonly managed conditions among studies (56%) conducted in low-/middle-income countries. Most pharmacist-involved interventions were delivered to rural communities (45%), followed by patients with low income (33%) and racial/ethnic minorities (24%). A minimal number of studies (1%) addressed gender- or disability-related interventions. Multidisciplinary team care (70%) and medication management (64%) were the most prevalent care models reported among the studies, followed by education (49%) and screenings/health fairs (21%). Commonly reported outcome measures included laboratory values (38%), medication utilization (29%), and medication adherence (16%). Only 7% and 9% of the studies reported humanistic and economic outcomes, respectively. Pharmacists have been involved in a variety of clinical interventions targeting a diverse range of patient populations, which unveiled pharmacists' roles in contributing to reducing health disparities. Variability of implemented interventions exists geographically and in certain groups for whom few interventions have been implemented, highlighting the need for further efforts to achieve equity in health care.