Henok Tegegn

and 5 more

Aims: Inappropriate polypharmacy poses adverse drug events, mortality, and high healthcare costs. Deprescribing could minimise inappropriate polypharmacy and the consequence thereof. This study aims to evaluate healthcare providers’ (HCPs) attitudes toward, and experiences with the deprescribing practice. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among HCPs at the University of Gondar Referral Hospital, Ethiopia. Perception of HCPs on deprescribing was measured by Linsky et al. validated tool. This tool has five dimensions that could affect HCPs’ decision to discontinue medications intentionally. One-way ANOVA was used to test the association between socio-demographic variables and their perception of deprescribing decisions. Results: Of 85 HCPs approached, about 82 HCPs with a 96.5% response rate were included in the final analysis of this study. Most HCPs (87%) were less likely or not at all to be affected by a strong relationship between HCPs and their patients to make a deprescribing decision. However, HCPs believed that formal education, significant physical health conditions, objective response to the clinical endpoint of the medication (e.g., blood pressure), and on-the-job experience profoundly influenced them to decide on deprescribing. According to the post-hoc analysis of one-way ANOVA, clinical pharmacists seemed to have a better attitude toward deprescribing decisions compared to physicians. (p = 0.025). Conclusion: HCPs’ decision to discontinue a medication could be multifactorial, and HCPs could be influenced by education level and their experience to discontinue a medication intentionally. A therapy-specific deprescribing algorithm, multidisciplinary collaboration, and continuous education development should be instituted to guide HCPs in the deprescribing decision process.