Partners: Drs Nikesh Parekh & Khalid Ali (BSMS); Dr Lizzie Ward (SASS) with Age UK, Brighton. Main areas of Impact: Health, Economic, Practitioners and services

Academics from Brighton & Sussex Medical School and Applied Social Sciences and staff and volunteer co-researchers from Age UK Brighton carried out a collaborative and participatory research project to address the gap in understanding of medication related problems (MRP) in hard to reach groups of older people. The objective of this project was to explore the older person’s lived experience of medication-related problems and to understand the contributing factors from the patient perspective. Key learning included the important contribution qualitative research can make to evidence-based medicine and that partnership between academia and community organisations can support the relevance and feasibility of research. The project contributed to the Kent, Surry & Sussex Academic Health Sciences Network polypharmacy project and the findings of the research have been disseminated through a knowledge exchange event, submission of a journal article and an upcoming international conference.