Older adults experiencing polypharmacy preferred to continue their non-prescription products during a card sorting activity

OBJECTIVES: To explore the extent to which adults 65-years and older who reported taking 10 or more non-prescription products were interested in deprescribing. METHODS: During an online semi-structured interview, participants were asked to imagine their primary care provider raised the idea of deprescribing. Participants sorted each prescription and non-prescription medication into a category: continue, stop or lower (deprescribe), or unsure. Findings were summarized using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. KEY FINDINGS: Participants (n = 15) were interested in deprescribing 6% of the non-prescription medications (n = 12/207). CONCLUSIONS: Older adults were resistant to deprescribing non-prescription products.