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NCT Number: NCT06771999

Attitudes Towards Deprescribing Medications in Cancer Patients and Impact of Educational Intervention by a Clinical Pharmacist

Participation in this study consists in responding to some questions from two questionnaires in Romanian about how participants feel about deprescribing, participants' treatment and how participants understand medical information. After that, participants will receive a brochure and watch a video with some basic information about medications and participants' involvement in treatment decisions and in the next visit for cancer treatment participants will be asked to answer questions from one of the initial questionnaire.

Recruiting

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Key information

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Constantin Opris Emergency County Hospital

Baia Mare, Maramureş, 430031, Romania

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Mihaela I Clinical Pharmacist, PhD student

CONTACT

[email protected]

0741167906 ext. +4

Mihaela PhD student, clinical pharmacist, pharmacist

CONTACT

[email protected]

+40741167906

About this study

Cancer patients are susceptible to using a lot of medications, with an increased risk of drug-related problems that could lead to adverse reactions from oncological drugs, hospital admissions, deteriorated performance status and increased mortality. In time, some medications may no longer be efficient, may have adverse reactions or may lose their indication and need to be stopped or replaced. This process is named deprescribing and it's supervised by a health care professional. Deprescribing can't be done without the implication of the patients, that's why it's important to investigate cancer patient's attitudes towards deprescribing non-oncologic medications in Romanian patients using a validated questionnaire (rPATD). Recent studies from Romania showed a possible lack of health care literacy that could affect patients involvement in treatment decision. In this study, will investigate health care literacy using a validated questionnaire in Romanian (HLS-EU-Q16). In this study investigators will also study if an educational intervention (targeting patients involvement in treatment decision and mandatory, minimal information about efficacy of a treatment and its adverse reactions) conducted by a clinical pharmacist using a brochure and a video will improve their engagement and knowledge about drugs. Impact of educational intervention will be investigated by applying the rPATD questionnaire before and after the intervention.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • cancer patients in palliative treatment
  • ECOG 1-2

Exclusion criteria

  • cancer patients in curative treatment
  • ECOG 3-4
  • cognitive impairment

Treatment and study plan

Educational intervention by a clinical pharmacist

Other

All participants will respond to two questionnaires, both validated in Romanian and some demographic information. One is the rPATD questionnaire that investigate attitudes towards deprescribing of medication and the other one is the HLS-EU-Q16 that investigates medical literacy of participants. After completion, the clinical pharmacist will give a brochure and a video about the process of deprescribing, information about the efficacy and the adverse reactions of medicines and the role of pacient in treatment decision. When participants come to another cancer treatment (after 14 , 21 or 28 days), the rPATD will be completed again.

Primary outcomes

  1. Impact of educational intervention performed by clinical pharmacist

    Time frame: from enrollment to the next cycle of oncological treatment (14, 21 or 28 days days)

    Participants will be asked to complete the same questionnaire before and after an educational intervention in order to assess if this kind of educational intervention is suitable for Romanian participants. Based on answers given to the same questions before and after the intervention, investigators can see if and what is changed in the perception of participants.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Attitudes towards deprescribing medications in cancer patients in palliative treatment

    Time frame: from enrollment to the next cycle of oncological treatment (14, 21 or 28 days days) when they answer the second time

    Using the rPATD questionnaire (revised Patients Attitudes Towards Deprescribing ), investigators assess if Romanian cancer patients are willing to have their medication deprescribed. The questionnaire has 4 factors:

    Burden, Appropriateness, Involvement and Concerns about Stopping. Each factor consists of 5 statements and participants are invited to respond to a 5-point Likert scale (strongly agree =5, agree =4, unsure =3, disagree =2, strongly disagree =1). Factors' scores are calculated as the average of the summed score for the five statements pertaining to each factor, with a final score per factor ranging from 1 to 5. A higher score indicates a greater perceived burden, higher concerns about stopping and greater involvement in medication related decisions. The appropriateness factor is reversed scored so that a higher score indicates a greater belief in the appropriateness of current medications

  2. The level of health literacy

    Time frame: at enrollment

    Using the questionnaire HLS-EU-Q16 investigators can asses the level of health literacy of participants. Each of the 16 items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("very difficult") to 4 ("very easy"). For interpretation of the final score, all items of the scale are summed, giving a score ranging between 0 (no health literacy) to 16 (high health literacy). For ease of interpretability, the three levels are identified: inadequate health literacy (0-8), problematic health literacy [9-12], and sufficient health literacy

Other outcomes

  1. Demographic characteristics of the population included in this study

    Time frame: at enrollment

    Investigators will be able to characterize a population of cancer patients in Romania: number of medications, number of diseases, social background (still working or retiered) , literacy (under 8 classes, 8 classes, highschool, vocational school, superior degree).

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Mihaela I Clinical pharmacist, PhD student

CONTACT

[email protected]

0741167906 ext. +4

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Attitudes Towards Deprescribing of Non-oncologic Medication in Cancer Pacient and the Impact of an Educational Intervention by a Clinical Pharmacist

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2027
First posted
Jan 13, 2025
Registry last updated
Feb 13, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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