Trust first, concerns second: An international vignette study of older adults' preferences towards deprescribing statins

This study investigated the attitudes and beliefs of older adults towards deprescribing statins in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, using an online, vignette-based study. Presented with a hypothetical scenario in which a general practitioner advised stopping simvastatin, participants rated their level of agreement and explained their rationale. Analysis was conducted incorporating the Patient Deprescribing Typology (PDT), which asks participants to share medication-related learning style, beliefs about importance, decision-making preferences and attitudes towards deprescribing. The findings correlated with participants' personal experiences with statins and their willingness to deprescribe in the scenario. The results highlight the importance of adapting deprescribing decisions to patients' beliefs and backgrounds to support shared decision-making. Future research is needed to assess whether typology-based screening tools can improve patient-centred deprescribing conversations in clinical practice.