An Interactive Approach to Educate Older Adults about Polypharmacy

Abstract

Specific Aims: To create and implement an educational presentation on polypharmacy using interactive strategies. Secondly, to assess the effectiveness of the interventional presentation by evaluating its helpfulness in improving polypharmacy awareness among older adults as measured by a retrospective pre-post participant survey. Methods: Residents of select independent senior living facilities in Tucson, Arizona were invited to attend an interactive, educational program entitled "What is Polypharmacy?" presented by fourth-year Doctor of Pharmacy students. This program consisted of a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, which included various interactive learning approaches, followed by a 10-minute question and answer period. An anonymous retrospective pre-post survey was distributed to the participants after the presentation to evaluate the effectiveness and helpfulness of the program, as determined by the participants’ ratings on Likert-type scales and willingness to confidently engage in medication self-management. Main Results: Of the 73 participants from the six independent living facilities, 55 surveys were collected from the residents and 54 surveys were included in the data analysis. The retrospective pre-post data analysis found that familiarity with the definition of polypharmacy increased (p<0.001), understanding of the risks of polypharmacy increased (p<0.001), and the willingness to manage one’s own medications increased (p=0.045). Overall, 95.9% of the participants found this educational program to be helpful, and 95.8% of the participants would recommend this program to a friend. Conclusion: The interactive, educational program about polypharmacy, created and presented by pharmacy students, was helpful and effective in increasing polypharmacy awareness among older adults residing in independent senior living facilities.