The School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University and Region Jönköping County, Jönköping, Sweden.
Jönköping Academy for Improvement of Health and Welfare, the School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.
Health Expect. 2019 Dec;22(6):1294-1303. doi: 10.1111/hex.12967. Epub 2019 Sep 26.
Older persons with polypharmacy are at increased risk of harm from medications, and this issue is a global patient safety challenge. Harm may arise at all stages of medication use and may cause hospital admission, additional resource utilization and lower patient satisfaction. Older persons' participation in their own care may increase patient safety. Their views on the evaluation of their medication treatment, and their own involvement in it, are crucial yet poorly understood.
To identify opportunities to make the medication use process safer, we explored and described older persons' experiences of evaluation of their medication treatment.
Semi-structured interviews were performed with 20 community-dwelling older persons (age 75-91 years) in Sweden. Data were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.
These older persons reported having a responsibility to engage in their medication evaluations, although some felt unable to do so or considered themselves unconcerned. Evaluation, in their experience, was facilitated by continuity of care and an invitation to participate. However, some older persons experienced not receiving a comprehensive medication evaluation.
Older persons want to be actively involved in their medication evaluations, and this may represent an underutilized resource in the pursuit of patient safety. Their trust in physicians to undertake evaluations on a regular basis, although that does not necessarily occur, may cause harm. Patient safety could benefit from a co-production approach to medication evaluations, with health-care professionals explicitly sharing information with older persons and agreeing on responsibilities related to on-going medication treatment.
服用多种药物的老年人面临更高的药物伤害风险，这是一个全球性的患者安全挑战。伤害可能发生在药物使用的所有阶段，并可能导致住院、额外的资源利用和降低患者满意度。老年人参与自己的护理可能会提高患者安全性。他们对自己药物治疗评估的看法以及自己的参与程度至关重要，但却了解甚少。
为了使药物使用过程更加安全，我们探索并描述了老年人对药物治疗评估的体验。
在瑞典对 20 名居住在社区的老年人（年龄 75-91 岁）进行了半结构式访谈。使用归纳定性内容分析法对数据进行分析。
这些老年人报告说他们有责任参与药物评估，尽管有些人觉得自己无法参与或不关心。他们的经验表明，连续性护理和参与邀请有助于评估。然而，一些老年人经历了未进行全面药物评估的情况。
老年人希望积极参与药物评估，这可能是在追求患者安全方面未被充分利用的资源。他们信任医生定期进行评估，尽管这种情况并不一定发生，但可能会造成伤害。通过共同制定药物评估的方法，让医疗保健专业人员明确与老年人分享信息，并就持续药物治疗的责任达成一致，患者安全可能会受益。
