Patients' Attitudes Towards Deprescribing Differ Across Specific Cardiovascular and Diabetes Medication: A Survey...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Geriatric Medicine
• Patient Attitudes

Background:

• Understanding patient attitudes towards medication deprescribing is crucial for effective clinical practice.
• Differences in attitudes may exist based on specific drug classes, impacting deprescribing implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate within-patient variations in attitudes toward deprescribing common cardiovascular and diabetes medications.
• Specifically assessed attitudes towards deprescribing statins, antihypertensives, sulfonylureas, and insulins.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the revised Patient Attitudes Towards Deprescribing questionnaire in Dutch primary care patients.
• Adapted questionnaire factors ('appropriateness', 'concerns') for medication-specific attitude assessment.
• Employed Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for pairwise comparisons, with false discovery rate correction.

Main Results:

• Analysis included 160 patients (median age 79 years, 34% frail).
• Patients reported higher appropriateness for deprescribing insulins versus statins, antihypertensives, and sulfonylureas.
• Appropriateness was also higher for sulfonylureas compared to antihypertensives and statins; no significant concerns differences were found.

Conclusions:

• Patient attitudes regarding the appropriateness of deprescribing vary significantly across different medication classes.
• Patients appear more amenable to deprescribing statins and antihypertensives than sulfonylureas or insulins.
• Healthcare providers must recognize these medication-specific patient attitudes and potential barriers during deprescribing discussions.