Beliefs about medication after hospital discharge in geriatric patients with polypharmacy.

Objectives: To describe beliefs about medication in geriatric patients with polypharmacy post-discharge and to evaluate the impact of discharge management on patients' medication beliefs.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2019 and March 2020 in twelve general hospitals in Belgium. Four hundred geriatric patients with polypharmacy were surveyed at hospital discharge and two to five days post-discharge using the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire and self-developed questionnaires.

Results: According to participants, the benefits of medication outweighed the disadvantages as the mean necessity score (19.4/25) outweighed the mean concern score (11.9/25). Patients receiving help with medication management post-discharge had stronger necessity-, concern- and overuse-related beliefs. No patient- or discharge management-related factors were significant predictors of medication beliefs.

Conclusions: Assessing patients' medication beliefs and identifying and addressing patients' concerns, can be an opportunity to improve medication use, to prevent non-adherence and to enhance safe medication practices at home.