The Japanese version of the rPATD is here, and it’s been confirmed. Finally, a tool that can assess the attitudes of older adults and their caregivers towards medication discontinuation. The validation process wasn’t just a stroll in the park, though. It involved some serious forward-back translation to guarantee that the Japanese and English versions didn’t turn into a game of telephone.
Older adults aged 65 and over were the stars of the show, recruited from community pharmacies. A whopping 344 of them joined the party, along with 219 caregivers, all keen to share their thoughts. The researchers conducted a test-retest analysis to confirm reliability, and guess what? They found ICCs exceeding 0.75. That’s solid. It’s good to know that both the older adults and their caregivers were on the same page about their medication attitudes.
The questionnaire itself? A tidy 22 items for older adults and 19 for caregivers, diving deep into the complex world of medication discontinuation attitudes. Two global questions about deprescribing willingness were thrown in for good measure. No floor or ceiling effects here, folks. The construct validity was acceptable, and the internal consistency? Yep, it held up like a champ.
Cultural adaptation was key. The translation followed international guidelines, and the final Japanese version got the thumbs up from the original developers. They took the Japanese healthcare context into account, making this tool truly applicable in real-world settings. This validated rPATD is more than just a fancy piece of paper; it’s a gateway to understanding how older adults and caregivers feel about reducing medication, thereby addressing polypharmacy and its associated risks.
It opens the door to research on medication appropriateness and burden.
