Polypharmacy and Willingness to Deprescribe Among Elderly with Chronic Diseases

Background

Elderly are mostly affected by polypharmacy induced adverse drug events as they are vulnerable due to numerous comorbidities. Deprescribing is a series of medicine ceasing process introduced to solve the problem arisen from polypharmacy. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes, beliefs and experiences towards polypharmacy among elderly with chronic diseases and their willingness to be deprescribed.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly patients in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia from August 2017 to October 2017 using a researcher assisted and validated questionnaire.

Results

A total number of 222 elderly patients were included in this study. 45.5% (n = 101) of the participants agreed that they were taking a large number of medicines (95% CI = 38.89%–52.10%). 56.3% (n = 125) of the participants had the desire to reduce their number of medications (95% CI = 49.73%–62.88%). Majority of them (n = 185, 83.33%) agreed to involve themselves in deprescribing process if permitted by their health care provider. 86.9% (n = 193) of the participants tended to not be afraid of deprescribing of their regular medications after a series of investigations by their health care provider (95% CI = 81%–89%).

Conclusion

Majority of the elderly would like to participate in deprescribing process. Major factors that will affect patients' willingness to deprescribe were physicians' time and support as well as possible future benefits of their regular medications.