Effect of Discharge Medication Information Sheet on Maintaining Discontinuation of Potentially Inappropriate Medications

Abstract

Drugs discontinued as potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) during hospitalization are often resumed after discharge from the hospital. In this study, we examined the maintenance proportion of PIMs discontinuation at the first visit within 1 year of discharge in patients who had discontinued PIMs during hospitalization to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision of the discharge medication information sheet. The proportion of patients who maintained discontinuation of PIMs was 86.1％ (31/36) and 65.2％ (15/23) in the group with and without information provision, respectively, showing no significant difference between the groups. The proportion of drugs that remained discontinued was 90.0％ (63/70) in the group with information provision, and significantly higher than 68.1％ (30/44) in the group without information provision (P = 0.006). In the subgroup analysis for patients who visited other hospitals after discharge, the proportion of patients and medications that remained on PIMs discontinuation was significantly higher in the group with information provision than without the provision (P = 0.049 and 0.011, respectively). The provision of the drug information sheet at discharge is useful for maintaining PIMs discontinuation, especially in patients who visited other hospitals.