Result
Socio-demographic characteristics of
the
participants
A total of 85 HCPs were interviewed, 82 were included in the analysis,
and three participants were excluded due to incompleteness with 96.5%
response rate. The mean age of the study participants was 25 years ±
3.01 years. Nearly two-thirds (57.3%) of the participants were males
and Amhara in ethnicity (54.9%). The average work experience of the
study participants was 2.23 years ± 2.62 years (Table 1).
Participants’ perception toward
medication discontinuation
The overall perception was described by parameters for the perception of
medication discontinuation. Participants were considered to be
influenced if they score a mean value higher than 1.5 points. Most of
the participants (n=73, 89%) have scored less than 1.5 points and are
less influenced by the overall five domains. The overall mean level of
influence among participants was 1.18 point.
Among the parameters, patient-HCP relationship strength under the domain
of ‘patients’ resource scale’ was found to be the lowest influencing
level (0.66 points). Almost half of the participants were highly
influenced to deprescribe with the occurrence of significant physical
health condition (1.55) and objective response to the clinical endpoint
of the medication (e.g., blood pressure approaches treatment target)
(1.43).
In the domain of “predictions of future health states”, very few HCPs
(n=1518.3%) perceive their medication discontinuation decision is more
likely to be influenced when it is patient’s concern that symptoms will
return if the medication is stopped. Majority of the participants (n=55,
67%) deem formal education is more important to their current level of
comfort with making deprescribing decisions. In contrast, almost half of
the participants (n=42, 51.2%) mentioned on-the-job experience as a
more important factor (Table 2).
The difference in perception level
among participants towards medication
discontinuation
The difference in the mean perception levels of participants was
determined based on socio-demographic characteristics. Based on One-way
ANOVA test performed on socio-demographic characteristics, significant
difference concerning perception to medication discontinuation were
found with different age groups (p = 0.024) and the participants’
educational qualification (p = 0.029) as shown Table 3. Post-hoc
analysis indicated that participants with a qualification of clinical
pharmacy (mean=0.313) had good perception level towards medication
discontinuation compared to participants with physician qualification
(mean=0.262), (p = 0.025).