Examining Success Factors in Deprescribing Proposals from Community Pharmacists

Abstract

Background: Polypharmacy is a critical issue that affects elderly people in particular. In Japan, fees to support deprescription are calculated bycommunity pharmacists who propose deprescribing 2 or more medications for patients prescribed 6 or more. However, the fees are rarely calculated.The objective of this study is toexamine success factors in deprescribing proposals submitted bycommunity pharmacists to prescribing doctors.Methods: Tracing reports submitted from Aug 2017 to Mar 2020 were investigated retrospectively to uncover factors that influenced the success of deprescribing using statisticalanalyses.Results:One hundred and twenty-three unique tracing reports were submitted to the prescribing doctors. Of these, 67 reports were successful in deprescribing and 56 failed; the success rate was 54.5%. Deprescribing proposals with existingunused medications significantly increased the deprescribing success rate. Possible adverse events, potentially inappropriate medications, and overlapping medications with the same effecttended to increase the success rate, but not significantly. Whether the pharmacist experienced face-to-face communication with the prescribing doctors did not significantly influence the outcome.Conclusions:Tracing reports with deprescribing proposals submitted by community pharmacists may help resolve problems arising frompolypharmacy. Mentioning unused medications could increase the deprescribing success rate.Trial registration: This study did not registered due to purely observational study.