Assessment of patient understanding of their medicines: interviews with community dwelling older Australians.
OBJECTIVE
To identify patterns of medication load, client's care team, coordination of healthcare and clients' understanding of their medications.


METHODS
Face-to-face interviews were conducted with community-dwelling older Australians between June and August 2017 in three community pharmacies in Adelaide, South Australia.


KEY FINDINGS
Forty interviews were conducted. On average, participants were taking 7.53 medicines with 77.5% using five or more regularly. Lack of collaboration between healthcare professionals, need for increased communication between prescribers and increased patient education on medicines, were highlighted. This study demonstrates that polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing are occurring within the community pharmacy setting, but shows insight into how these concerns can be overcome, by implementing pharmacist-led services such as non-dispensing pharmacists in community pharmacies.


CONCLUSION
Careful consideration when prescribing and effective communication are required to minimise risks associated with polypharmacy in this population.
['Corre|Lauren J|LJ|', 'Hotham|Elizabeth|E|', 'Tsimbinos|Jacquie|J|', 'Todd|Ian|I|', 'Scarlett|Greg|G|', 'Suppiah|Vijayaprakash|V|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5496-935X']
D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D003142:Communication D003157:Community Pharmacy Services D003299:Cooperative Behavior D005260:Female D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice D006801:Humans D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing D057187:Independent Living D007407:Interviews as Topic D008297:Male D010348:Patient Care Team D010353:Patient Education as Topic D010595:Pharmacists D019338:Polypharmacy D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' D024382:Professional Role D013021:South Australia
community dwelling older Australians polypharmacy medication use