Background: Pharmaceutical care (PC) has a significant impact on optimizing pharmacotherapy and improving patients’ quality of life. We aimed to determine the attitudes and perceived barriers of final year pharmacy undergraduates towards provision of PC services in Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 232 students using a 13-item-standard PC attitude survey (PCAS) questionnaire and 12-itemed PC barrier questionnaires. Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to measure the median difference between groups, at alpha=0.05, and Spearman’s rho test was used to measure the strength of the correlation. Results: Majority of students were self-motivated in undertaking the current pharmacy education (178, 76.7%) and had no previous incomplete grades that could delay their graduation (177, 76.3%). Over 80% of students had a positive attitude toward all items of PCAS (agreed and strongly agreed) except for two items. Whereas, 61 (26.3%) disagreed and strongly disagreed that providing PC takes too much time and effort. The major barriers perceived were inadequate PC training (176, 75.9%), inadequate drug information resources in the pharmacy (170, 73.3%), and lack of access to patient medical records in the pharmacy (165, 71.1%). A significant relationship was noticed between positive attitude towards PC and three factors; source of motivation, current employment in pharmacy job, and incomplete grades delaying graduation. Age factor was significant but negatively correlated with the scores of positive attitudes namely “I would like to perform PC as a pharmacist practitioner”, “Providing PC is professionally rewarding” and “I feel that the PC is the right direction for the provision to be headed”. Conclusion: Nepalese undergraduate pharmacy students had positive attitudes toward PC. Exercising proper pharmacy practice regulations and educational efforts to overcome the perceived barriers may lead to better delivery of PC.

Aims Older patients with life‐limiting illness (LLI) and limited life expectancy (LLE) continue to receive potentially inappropriate medicines, consequently deprescribing is often necessary. However, deprescribing in this population can be complex and challenging. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the evidence for outcomes of deprescribing interventions in older patients with LLI and LLE. Methods Studies on deprescribing intervention and their outcomes in age ≥65 years with LLI and LLE were searched using PubMed, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Medication appropriateness was primary outcome, while clinical and cost‐related outcomes were secondary. Eligibility, data extraction and quality assessment were followed by a narrative synthesis of data. Results Of 9 studies (1375 participants), 3 reported on primary outcome. One study showed a significant reduction in medication inappropriateness by 34.9% (P < .001) from admission to close‐out, the second achieved 29.4% (P < .001) and 15.1% (P = .003) reduction at 12 and 24 months, respectively. The third reported that their intervention stopped (17.2%) and altered the dose (2.6%) of high‐risk medications. Commonly reported clinical outcomes were mortality (n = 3), quality of life (n = 2) and falls (n = 2). Outcomes in terms of cost were reported as overall cost (n = 2), medication cost (n = 1) and health care expenditure (n = 1). Conclusion Our findings suggest that deprescribing in older patients with LLI and LLE can improve medication appropriateness, and has potential for enhancement of several clinical outcomes and cost savings, but the evidence needs to be better established.

Introduction: Older adults continue to receive potentially inappropriate medications necessitating the need for medication optimization, by deprescribing. To ensure a holistic approach to deprescribing, it is essential to understand the perception of older adults towards deprescribing. This study aimed to assess the attitude of older ambulatory patients towards deprescribing and to identify factors predicting their willingness to deprescribe. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in central Nepal between March and September 2019 among 385 older ambulatory care patients (aged ⩾65 years) who were taking at least one regular medicine. The perception of patients towards deprescribing was assessed using the revised Patients’ Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire via a face-to-face interview method. Descriptive statistics were performed to describe patients’ characteristics and their attitudes towards deprescribing. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictors of the willingness of older ambulatory patients towards deprescribing. Results: The median [interquartile range (IQR)] age of patients was 72 (8) years. Nearly three in five patients (64.9%) had hypertension, with 11.2% having polypharmacy. More than half of the patients (57.4%) would be willing to stop one or more of their regular medicines if their doctor said it was possible to do so. Regression analysis showed that age [odds ratio (OR) 0.946; 95% CI 0.913, 0.981; p = 0.003] and concerns about stopping medicine score (OR 0.541; 95% CI 0.334, 0.876; p = 0.013) were predictors of the willingness of the older patients towards deprescribing. Conclusion: One in two older ambulatory care patients in Nepal would be willing to have one or more of their medicines deprescribed. The factors predicting their willingness to deprescribe are their age and concerns about stopping medicines. Clinicians should consider discussing the possibility of deprescribing with older patients for the prevention of potential medication-related harms. Plain Language Summary What do older Nepalese patients think about withdrawal or dose reduction of an inappropriate medication? Introduction: Research suggests that older adults (aged ⩾65 years) continue to receive medications that have the potential for harm rather than a benefit. This necessitates the need for withdrawal or dose reduction of such inappropriate medications, the process known as deprescribing. Understanding what older patients think about this process could be a stepping-stone to the general approach for its implementation. Data on deprescribing is lacking from Nepal. Therefore, we designed a survey to explore the attitude of older patients towards deprescribing and factors that could predict their willingness to deprescribe. Methods: This study was conducted between March to September 2019 among 385 older patients who were taking at least one regular medicine and were visiting selected hospitals of Nepal for outpatient services. We performed a face-to-face interview to assess the attitude of patients towards deprescribing using a validated tool called revised Patients’ Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire that quantified the response through scoring. The data were subjected to statistical analysis to determine the attitudes of Nepalese older patients towards deprescribing and to develop a model to predict their willingness to deprescribe. Results: The average age of the participant was 72 years with 65% having hypertension and 11% using more than five medications. Our data suggested that one in two older Nepalese patients would be willing to stop one or more of their regular medications if their doctors said it was possible to do so. Their willingness to deprescribe could be predicted from their age and concerns about stopping medications. Conclusion: Clinicians should consider discussing the possibility of deprescribing with older patients for the prevention of potential medication-related harms.

BackgroundMeeting participants’ needs and matching their preferences are important prerequisites for an effective Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) program. The objective of this pilot study was to assess the opinion of hospital pharmacy practitioners with respect to the CPE program.MethodsThe pretested questionnaires were distributed to 20 pharmacy practitioners working in a pharmacy at a tertiary care hospital in Nepal which asked for their opinions and suggestions with respect to the CPE program. Descriptive statistics were performed using IBM SPSS version 20.ResultsTopics related to skills development (75%) and recent innovations in pharmacy practice (65%) were mostly preferred. Live (in-person) presentations (80%) and small group discussion (60%) were the most suitable methods for delivery. Improving knowledge (75%), improving skills (60%) and keeping up-to-date in the latest information (60%) were major motivating factors to participate, while lack of time (75%) was a major barrier. Approximately 55% of the participants believed that face-to-face interview was a suitable method for evaluating the effectiveness. Allocation of separate time for the program, assessing baseline knowledge and skills of the participants along with delivery of quality materials in an understandable way were the top common suggestions for improving the CPE program.ConclusionHospital pharmacy practitioners’ opinions and suggestions were assessed with respect to the CPE program and this was upgraded accordingly to meet their expectations.

Background:Baseline stroke knowledge in a targeted population is indispensable to promote the effective stroke education. We report the baseline knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of high school students with respect to stroke from Nepal.Materials and Methods:A self-structured questionnaire survey regarding KAP about stroke was conducted in high school students of 33 schools of Bharatpur, Nepal. Descriptive statistics including Chi-square test was used, and the significant variables were subjected to binary logistic regression.Results:Among 1360 participants, 71.1% had heard or read about stroke; 30.2% knew someone with stroke. 39.3% identified brain as the organ affected. Sudden onset limb/s weakness/numbness (72%) and hypertension (74%) were common warning symptom and risk factor identified. 88.9% would take stroke patients to a hospital. Almost half participants (55.5%) felt ayurvedic treatment be effective. 44.8% felt stroke as a hindrance to a happy life and 86.3% believed that family care was helpful for early recovery. Students who identified at least one risk factor were 3.924 times (P < 0.001, confidence interval [CI] = 1.867–8.247) or those who identified at least one warning symptom were 2.833 times (P ≤ 0.023, CI = 1.156–6.944) more likely to take stroke patients to a hospital.Conclusion:KAP of high school Nepalese students regarding stroke was satisfactory, and the students having knowledge about the risk factors and warning symptoms were more likely to take stroke patients to a hospital. However, a few misconceptions persisted.