Using Protection Motivation Theory to develop a survey of over-the-counter decision-making by older adults.

Background: Older adults (aged 65+) are responsible for 30% of the over-the-counter (OTC) medication use in the US. Each year, over 175,000 older adults are hospitalized due to OTC-related adverse drug events (ADEs). A major barrier to improving OTC use has been the dearth of actionable research on factors that affect older adult decision-making during OTC selection.