Psychological and Clinical Factors That Predict Intent to Deprescribe Medications Among Older Adults

Around one-half of older adults take one or more medications that are inappropriate or medically unnecessary. These medications can cause side effects that are unacceptable to patients. Several studies provide guidance to clinicians about the process of stopping specific types of medications (e.g., steps that clinicians can take to reduce and stop a medication for anxiety or difficulty sleeping). However, these approaches are not always successful. A critical gap with these approaches is they tend to focus on the medication, rather than the patient, and their individual needs.

Our research team seeks to learn more about factors that are important to patients when they consider reducing or stopping a medication. The investigators will do this by conducting two surveys each with 4,800 older adults across four countries (United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Australia). Each participant will be asked to give their opinions on a hypothetical patient scenario that has been developed by our diverse team in partnership with our stakeholder organizations. In the first survey, the investigators will examine how the reason for using the medication (e.g. preventing a disease or treating symptoms of a disease) as well as the reason for a recommendation to stop the medication (e.g. lack of benefit vs. potential for harm) influence older adults' willingness to stop medications. In the second survey, the investigators will examine how the type of medication (e.g. addictive or non-addictive medication) and whether the participant is making a recommendation about oneself (as if they were the patient in the case) or on behalf of the patient in the case (e.g., if it was their friend) influence their willingness to stop medications. The investigators will work with Qualtrics, an international company that distributes surveys, to collect this data that does not include any identifying information.

The investigators anticipate that once the survey is designed and show that it is successful for studying patient perspectives about stopping medicines, it can then apply the same study approach to test the effect of other relevant factor that may influence the decision to stop or reduce a medication. The investigators anticipate that our research will significantly contribute to our understanding of how older adults make decisions about stopping medications. This information will be helpful to researchers and clinicians to ensure future services can be developed to best support patients to make decisions about stopping or reducing inappropriate or unnecessary medication.