Abstract
Objectives: To identify elderly inpatients' attitudes toward deprescribing at King Khalid University Hospital and determine the most commonly used polypharmacy drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study on deprescribing in elderly patients was conducted at Riyadh's King Saud university medical city during January-February/2019. We used the validated Arabic version of the Patient Attitude toward Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire. Results: One hundred fourteen patients completed the questionnaire with a response rate of 83%. The participants' mean age was 68.9 +/- 7.4. Most were females (54.4%), married (86.8%), and illiterate (42.1%). Despite 63% of the patients feeling that they were taking many medicines, 58.8% of the participants did not perceive a financial burden of medications. The median (range) of comorbidities was 3(6). The cardiovascular and metabolic diseases account for (86.0%) and (79.8%). Patients took a median (range) of 8(12) medications. The most were statins (48.2%), proton pump inhibitor (46.4%), beta-blocker (41.8%), insulin (38.2%), biguanides (35.5%) and Anticoagulants (22.7). Overall, 87.7% would like to some of their drugs if their physicians allow it, although 80.7% reported satisfication with their drugs. The positive attitude towards deprescribing) accounted for 48.2%. It was higher among those younger 80, p<0.05. Also, the illiterate scored higher median than other educational groups on the burden factor subscale, p<0.01. Conclusion: The majority of elderly patients are willing to deprescribe when it is appropriate. We recommend the utilization of clinical pharmacists' expertise to simplify the polypharmacy for patients. Further studies should be held to obtain more evidence to initiate the deprescribing process.