General practitioners' deprescribing decisions in older adults with polypharmacy: a case vignette study in 31 countries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

General practitioners (GPs) should regularly review patients' medications and, if necessary, deprescribe, as inappropriate polypharmacy may harm patients' health. However, deprescribing can be challenging for physicians. This study investigates GPs' deprescribing decisions in 31 countries.

Methods

In this case vignette study, GPs were invited to participate in an online survey containing three clinical cases of oldest-old multimorbid patients with potentially inappropriate polypharmacy. Patients differed in terms of dependency in activities of daily living (ADL) and were presented with and without history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). For each case, we asked GPs if they would deprescribe in their usual practice. We calculated proportions of GPs who reported the

SUBMITTER: Jungo KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7792080 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature