Information on actual medication use and drug-related problems in older patients: questionnaire or interview?
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ABSTRACT: Information on medication use and drug-related problems is important in the preparation of clinical medication reviews. Critical information can only be provided by patients themselves, but interviewing patients is time-consuming. Alternatively, patient information could be obtained with a questionnaire.In this study the agreement between patient information on medication use and drug-related problems in older patients obtained with a questionnaire was compared with information obtained during an interview.General practice in The Netherlands.A questionnaire was developed to obtain information on actual medication use and drug-related problems. Two patient groups ?65 years were selected based on general practitioner electronic medical records in nine practices; I. polypharmacy and II. ?1 predefined general geriatric problems. Eligible patients were asked to complete the questionnaire and were interviewed afterwards.Agreement on information on medication use and drug-related problems collected with the questionnaire and interview was calculated.Ninety-seven patients participated. Of all medications used, 87.6 % (95 % CI 84.7-90.5) was reported identically in the questionnaire and interview. Agreement for the complete medication list was found for 45.4 % (95 % CI 35.8-55.3) of the patients. On drug-related problem level, agreement between questionnaire and interview was 75 %. Agreement tended to be lower in vulnerable patients characterized by ?4 chronic diseases, ?10 medications used and low health literacy.Information from a questionnaire showed reasonable agreement compared with interviewing. The patients reported more medications and drug-related problems in the interview than the questionnaire. Taking the limitations into account, a questionnaire seems a suitable tool for medication reviews that may replace an interview for most patients.
SUBMITTER: Willeboordse F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4828470 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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