In this study, we examined Chinese community-dwelling older adults\' attitudes to deprescribing as well as individual-level correlates. Through the community-based health examination platform, we performed a cross-sectional study by personally interviews using the revised Patients\' Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire (version for older adults) in two communities located in Suzhou, China. We recruited participants who were at least 65 years and had at least one chronic condition and one prescribed medication.
We included 1,897 participants in the present study; the mean age was 73.8 years (SD = 6.2 years) and 1,023 (53.9%) were women. Most of older adults had one chronic disease (n = 1,364 [71.9%]) and took 1-2 regular drugs (n = 1,483 [78.2%]). Half of the participants (n = 947, 50%) indicated that they would be willing to stop taking one or more of their medicines if their doctor said it was possible, and 924 (48.7%) older adults wanted to cut down on the number of medications they were taking. We did not find individual level characteristics to be correlated to attitudes to deprescribing.
The proportions of participants\' willingness to deprescribing were much lower than what prior investigations among western populations reported. It is important to identify the factors that influence deprescribing and develop a patient-centered and practical deprescribing guideline that is suitable for Chinese older adults.
在这项研究中,我们研究了中国社区居住的老年人对开药的态度以及个人层面的相关性。通过社区健康体检平台,我们通过个人访谈进行了横断面研究,使用修订后的患者对处方的态度(rPATD)问卷(老年人版本)在两个社区位于苏州,中国。我们招募了至少65岁,至少有一种慢性疾病和一种处方药的参与者。
我们在本研究中纳入了1,897名参与者;平均年龄为73.8岁(SD=6.2岁),女性为1,023名(53.9%)。大多数老年人患有一种慢性疾病(n=1,364[71.9%]),并服用1-2种常规药物(n=1,483[78.2%])。一半的参与者(n=947,50%)表示,如果医生说有可能,他们愿意停止服用一种或多种药物,924名(48.7%)老年人希望减少他们服用的药物数量。我们没有发现个体水平特征与对开处方的态度相关。
参与者不愿开药的比例远低于西方人群先前的调查报告。重要的是要确定影响开处方的因素,并制定适合中国老年人的以患者为中心和实用的开处方指南。