Development of Patient Education Material for Proton Pump Inhibitor Deprescribing: A Mixed-Methods Study

Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) deprescribing is recommended in case of inappropriate use. Patient education materials are key elements in the deprescribing process.

The study objective was to develop patient education material for PPI deprescribing in primary care in France.

This was a mixed-methods study involving (1) a literature review of the existing patient education materials on PPI deprescribing to identify key points to optimize the layout and content of the document; (2) development of a first version of the brochure by a pluri-professional steering group, following the national reference methodology of the French National Authority for Health (Haute Autorité de Santé) and iterative modifications of the patient brochure; (3) assessment of the content and understandability of the brochure by questionnaires followed by semistructured interviews with target patients; and (4) iterative brochure readability assessment with the Flesch reading ease tool.

The final patient education material is a double-sided A3 brochure-that is, 4 A4 pages. The first round of user testing by questionnaire (n = 14 patients) led to modifications to improve the document understandability, validated in the second round of user testing by questionnaire (n = 10 patients). The semistructured interviews (n = 10 patients) highlighted an adequate comprehension, whereas actionability required some minor modifications. The readability test score of the final education brochure was 59.4.

This patient education brochure for PPI deprescribing is targeted to patients in primary care. Its impact on PPI deprescribing will be assessed in a population-based pragmatic trial in primary care.