These measures signify readiness to engage in preventive health behaviors. Whether or not these intentions translate into action remains to be determined. The major strength of this study was systematic measurement of knowledge, beliefs and risk perceptions. Missing data was imputed to reflect a worst-case scenario, and at best underestimated the impact of the intervention. Few validated instruments exist to reliably measure Erastin supplier benzodiazepine-related knowledge, beliefs and behaviors. Although the BMQ-Specific questionnaire has been previously tested, the benzodiazepine-related knowledge questions were not. Similarly, risk perception was measured with a single self-reported item and not a full instrument, and

the elicitation of cognitive dissonance was assumed rather than measured directly. Finally, this study was conducted in community pharmacies and thus is not generalizable to frailer

patients living in health care facilities or long-term care. In conclusion, a home-based educational program consisting of a this website document mailed to participants demonstrated significant effects on medication knowledge, beliefs and risk perception in a cohort of older benzodiazepine users. By changing knowledge and increasing perceived risk, consumer-targeted drug information elicited a desire among many older adults to discuss medication safety with their health care providers. The results of an ongoing randomized trial will demonstrate whether these changes wrought by

the educational intervention are sufficient to result in discontinuation click here of inappropriate prescriptions. The aging consumer may be an under-utilized catalyst of change for reducing potentially inappropriate prescriptions. This work is supported by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of health Research. Grant ID: 2000/03MOP-201314-KTE-CFCL-108262, and the Michel Saucier Endowed Chair in Geriatric Pharmacology, Health and Aging None. We would like to thank the individuals who participated in this study, the study coordinator, Joelle Dorais who patiently collected all data, participating pharmacists who helped with recruitment, and Mira Jabbour and Francine Giroux who assisted with database management. “
“A patient’s medical record typically consists of a range of documents, including test results, discharge reports, letters, observational notes and so on. These documents are often not available when and where they are needed, and even when they are, clinicians often do not have the time to read them carefully. Medical histories are also increasingly being captured as data in large repositories to serve administrative and research purposes. While such repositories hold information that is potentially valuable to clinicians, the information remains largely inaccessible to them since they have neither the expertise, time, nor inclination to extract what they need from the repository.