Top 10 consumer and healthcare professional priorities for research in the field of quality use of medicines in people living with dementia.

BackgroundPeople living with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia are vulnerable to medicine-related problems. More research is needed to support achieving quality use of medicines in people living with dementia.ObjectiveTo determine the top 10 unanswered quality use of medicines questions for people living with dementia, as prioritized by Australians living with dementia, their carers, and healthcare professionals.MethodsThe James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership method was used. This manuscript reports the second half of the priority setting process. Using a quantitative survey, consumers (people living with dementia, their carers and family and friends) and healthcare professionals selected up to ten research questions about quality use of medicines that they felt were most important. The research questions were informed by a previous national qualitative survey and evidence checking process to identify those that were unanswered. An online workshop was then conducted with consumers and healthcare professionals to prioritize the unanswered questions, resulting in a top 10 list.Results171 consumers and 67 healthcare professionals completed the survey and the workshop included 17 participants. The top 10 priorities related to shared decision making, education of healthcare professionals, communication between healthcare professionals, reducing the use of unnecessary and harmful medicines, managing medicines safely at home, medicine reviews, residential aged care facilities and managing pain, behavioral changes, depression and anxiety.ConclusionsTargeting research efforts towards these identified consumer and healthcare professional priorities will ensure research funds are being directed to the most urgent areas of need in practice.