Sarah E Vordenberg

The purpose of this study was to examine factors important to older adults who agreed with a deprescribing recommendation given by a general practitioner (GP) to a hypothetical patient experiencing polypharmacy. We conducted an online, vignette‐based, experimental study in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia with participants ≥65 years. The primary outcome was an agreement with a deprescribing recommendation (6‐point Likert scale; 1 = strongly disagree and 6 = strongly agree ). We performed a content analysis of the free‐text reasons provided by participants who agreed with deprescribing (score of 5 or 6). Among 2656 participants who agreed with deprescribing, approximately 53.7% shared a preference for following the GP's recommendation or considered the GP the expert. The medication was referred to as a reason for deprescribing by 35.6% of participants. Less common themes included personal experience with medicine (4.3%) and older age (4.0%). Older adults who agreed with deprescribing in a hypothetical vignette most frequently reported a desire to follow the recommendations given the GP's expertise. Future research should be conducted to help clinicians efficiently identify patients who have a strong desire to follow the doctor's recommendations related to deprescribing, as this may allow for a tailored, brief deprescribing conversation.

Objectives To explore the extent to which adults 65-years and older who reported taking 10 or more non-prescription products were interested in deprescribing. Methods During an online semi-structured interview, participants were asked to imagine their primary care provider raised the idea of deprescribing. Participants sorted each prescription and non-prescription medication into a category: continue, stop or lower (deprescribe), or unsure. Findings were summarized using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Key findings Participants (n = 15) were interested in deprescribing 6% of the non-prescription medications (n = 12/207). Conclusions Older adults were resistant to deprescribing non-prescription products.