Medication Deprescribing: Views among Older Americans
New survey of older adults shows the majority are open to stopping at least 1 of their medications—but some who already did so didn't consult their clinician first.
Medication deprescribing is a collaborative effort between patients and their health care provider to intentionally reduce or stop prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, and/or dietary supplements. What do patients think about medication deprescribing? The University of Michigan National Poll on Health Aging recently asked a national sample of older adults aged 50-80 years (n=2563) about their current medication use and experiences with deprescribing. In the slides below, find an overview of key findings.
Overall, 82% of respondents reported taking at least 1 prescription medication in a typical week, 26% said 3-4 medications, and 28% said ≥5 medications.
In a typical week, 60% of respondents said they take at least 1 over-the-counter (OTC) medication and 78% said they take ≥1 dietary supplements (eg, vitamins, minerals, herbal remedies).
Three in five older adults (60%) reported that their prescription medications are helping them a lot, 33% thought their OTC medications help them a lot, and 32% said their dietary supplements help them a lot.
When asked whether they sometimes think they take too many medications, 28% of respondents agreed, 18% were unsure, and 54% disagreed.
Older adults who reported having a health problem or disability that limits their daily activities were more likely to agree they take too many medications (42% vs 20% of those without a health problem or disability that limits their daily activities).
Overall, 80% of older adults taking prescription medication said they would be willing to stop taking ≥1 medications if their health care provider said it was possible. When those adults were asked to think about 1 medication that they would be most interested in stopping, they most frequently named medications for treatment or prevention of cardiovascular disease (43%), diabetes (13%), and pain management (10%).
Two in 3 respondents (67%) reported that they would be likely to ask the health care provider who prescribed the medication for advice about whether they could stop that medication during their next visit.
When older adults who take prescription medications were asked to think about their medication use in the past 2 years, 26% recalled stopping ≥1 prescription medications that they had previously taken for over 1 year. Stopping a prescription medication was more common among persons who took ≥5 medications.
Older adults in fair or poor physicalhealth were more likely to report stopping a medication during the past 2 yrs than those with excellent, very good, or good physical health (42% vs 22%). Respondents in fair or poor mental health were more likely to report stopping a medication during the past 2 years vs those with excellent, very good, or good mental health (41% vs 24%). Older adults in fair or poor mental health were more likely to report stopping a medication during the past 2 years vs those with excellent, very good, or good mental health (41% vs 24%).
Reasons for stopping a medication included starting a different medication recommended by a health care provider (50%), improvement or resolution of a health condition or its symptoms (45%), the belief that the medication did not provide enough benefit (45%), concerns about side effects or other problems (41%), and/or the cost of the medication (11%).
Older adults with a health problem or disability were more likely than those without a health problem or disability to report stopping a medication because it caused side effects or other problems (47% vs 35%) or was too expensive (15% vs 7%). Of those who had stopped taking a prescription medication without starting on a replacement, 36% did so without talking with a health care professional.
