Older Adults' Readiness to Stop Prescribed Medications

The purpose of this research is to assess readiness to deprescribe, that is, to determine how willing patients are to stop prescriptions that may no longer be necessary or may no longer have a favorable benefit-risk ratio. This readiness depends on many factors, including a patient's trust in a health care provider, how proactive patients are in seeking care, and patients' comfort in changing longstanding medical regimens.

The proposed two-wave survey research will use validated instruments and recruit from an older adult research registry to determine (i) readiness to deprescribe at baseline, (ii) correlates of such readiness, and (iii) effects of intercurrent illness and changing health on readiness to deprescribe at 6 months.

Specific aims:

• Determine readiness to deprescribe among a sample of patients with 5+ prescriptions using validated scales.
• Determine correlates of readiness to deprescribe. Patients differing in age, gender, race, education, and comorbidity may differ in willingness to stop prescribed medications.
• Determine the effect of intercurrent illness on readiness to deprescribe. Over 6 months, we anticipate some patients will have a new onset of illness or hospitalization, or increasing levels of disability. We would like to determine if these changes in medical status affect readiness to deprescribe.

Inclusion criteria

• 65 years or older
• Medical visit within past 6 months
• Self-report of at least 5 regular medications for at least 4 weeks

Exclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of dementia or score <=4 on Memory Impairment Screen
• Hospitalization in prior 30 days with change in medications