2024-04-172024-04-172024-03-21https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12503/32622Purpose: Health literacy is often a barrier to patient understanding and effective communication with healthcare providers. Patients are often unaware of what questions to ask during their visits and leave their provider offices without fully understanding their conditions or medication regimens. Past studies have shown that facilitating patient dialogue through structured questions during the encounter results in fewer patient callbacks and improved comprehension. The goal of this study was to identify the most common questions and concerns that patients 50 years and older who are on five or more medications would like to discuss with their physicians about their medications. Such data could help physicians anticipate and educate patients with information most valuable to them during office visits. Methods: We designed a 20-question survey to better understand what patients desired from their primary care visit including questions to ask, concerns to tell, and positive behaviors to report to their provider. We focused on the ask and tell sections which involved presenting questions or concerns that were pertinent to the patient's conditions or medications. Participants included patients at family medicine clinics from a county hospital system (240) and a private practice (211) in Fort Worth who were 50 years of age or older and taking five or more medications. Surveys were administered at a clinical visit by the medical assistant before the physician/patient encounter. Descriptive statistics are provided. Results: Out of 451 surveys completed, the questions that patients were most interested in talking with their physician included: 1) What should I eat, and what should I not eat for my condition? (20.4%) 2) Can I take fewer medicines than I am taking? (15.3%) 3)How do I learn more about my condition? (14.6%) The least common questions were 1) Why do I need several medications for my condition? (8.2%) 2) Other questions: (8.6%) 3) How can I stop my blood sugar, heart rate, or blood pressure from getting too low? (9.1%) The most common concerns about their medications were: 1) I stopped or skipped these medicines, due to: cost, side effects, or other reasons (11.1%) 2) I have new medicines from other doctors (offices, hospitals or emergency rooms) (8%) 3) I have concerns with my medicines (examples: cost, hard to read, not helping much) (5.7%) Conclusions: It is evident that patients are interested in learning about their conditions and making appropriate lifestyle changes. The most commonly raised concerns were related to medication access, polypharmacy, and efficacy. These data show some of the potential topics patients want to discuss with their providers. The most common topics from this study can be implemented into a question prompt lists (QPL [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecc.12489?casa_token=kGVvFBSWANEAAAAA:NOhQ46f92KtdNp9XgslcAiwEoB6MI0N4K1vOA2P7FyFQ_BBgv0BycKPBy4sLKk_e9Cki971trjdfoL1k]) specific to medications and chronic disease management. Providers could give lists to patients to review while waiting for care. Having these topics beforehand would help the patients be prepared when presented with “what questions do you have?”; thus, revealing the patient's perspective and helping to increase their health literacy.enposter