Developing and testing complex behaviour change interventions to support proactive deprescribing: A narrative review

1 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

A culture of prescribing to treat long-term conditions, coupled with age-associated changes in the processes of metabolizing medicine, have led to an “overprescribing epidemic” amongst older adults.1 The World Health Organization recognizes overprescribing as a serious problem yet deprescribing of medicines with more risks than benefits is not routine practice. Approximately half of older adults admitted to hospital are prescribed at least one medicine with more risks than benefits2; however, a 2018 study based in England reported that only 1% of older adults have a medicine deprescribed during a hospital admission.3