FIP Seville 2022 80th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Seville, Spain, 18 to 22 September 2022 Abstracts

Introduction: The use of medication with questionable benefits is common in nursing home residents and is associated with a number of harms, including adverse drug reactions, hospitalisation, and mortality. To ensure optimal care among this population, continuous reconsideration and adjustment of medication use are essential. Such reconsideration and adjustment could include deprescribing, the process of proactively reducing or discontinuing a medication where the potential benefits no longer outweigh the potential harms. Successful deprescribing requires insight into patients' attitudes towards deprescribing. Objectives: To explore attitudes towards deprescribing among Danish nursing home residents. Methods: We included nursing home residents from 27 nursing homes in The Region of Southern Denmark. Nursing home residents were eligible for participation if they spoke and understood Danish, and had an Orientation-Memory-Concentration (OMC) score of >= 8. To explore attitudes towards deprescribing we used a translated and validated version of the revised Patiens' Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire. Each question was read aloud to the residents in their home at the nursing home and the response options were presented to them on paper in a large font. We reported attitudes descriptively. Results: A total of 162 nursing home residents were included from 27 nursing homes. The median age was 84 years (interquartile range [IQR] 75-91) and 67% (n=108) were women. Almost half of the residents (49%) took between 5-9 regular medications, while 27% took between 10-14 regular medications and 6,2% took 15 or more regular medications. More than half of the residents (55%) believed they took a large number of medications but, at the same time, 88% were satisfied with their medications. 81% of the residents like to know as much as possible about their medicines, but at the same time, only 51% know exactly what medicines they are currently taking. About 72% answered that they always ask their doctor, at the pharmacy or the nursing staff if there is something they don't understand about their medicines. Further, 35% would like to try stopping one of their medications on their own, while 85% would be willing to stop one of their regular medications if their physician said it was possible. Only 31% would like their physician to reduce the dose of one or more of their medicines, while 27% would be worried about missing out on future benefits if one of their medicines was stopped, and 13% think that one or more of their medicines may not be working. Conclusions: Overall, we found that nursing home residents are open towards deprescribing, particularly if it is proposed by the physician.