Deprescribing for older adults during acute care admission: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to understand the current body of knowledge regarding deprescribing in adults aged 60 years or older in acute care settings, including the deprescribing activities that are being undertaken, and the feasibility, challenges, and outcomes of the practice.

Introduction: Polypharmacy is prevalent amongst older adults, despite risks to patients. Much of the existing research on deprescribing has occurred in the outpatient context, with recent research emerging on the unique opportunity that acute care may provide.

Inclusion criteria: This review will include deprescribing in adults aged 60 years or older in acute care. It will consider deprescribing occurring during inpatient admission and at the time of discharge from hospital.

Methods: The JBI method for scoping reviews will guide this review. A search of MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Embase (Ovid), and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews will be undertaken from inception to present with no language restrictions. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method studies, clinical practice guidelines, and opinion papers will be considered for inclusion. Systematic reviews and scoping reviews will be excluded. Google Scholar and a general Google search will be conducted for gray literature. Two reviewers will assess articles for inclusion and any disagreements will be discussed and resolved by discussion or a third reviewer, if required. Findings will be presented in the scoping review using a narrative approach with supporting quantitative data in a tabular format according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews checklist (PRISMA-ScR).

Review registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/pb7aw/.