Medication risk checklist for older adults (LOTTA) - development and validation of a self-assessment tool.

Patient safety strategies highlight patients' own active involvement in ensuring medication safety, which in turn, requires easy-to-use tools to self-assess potential medication risks and communicate them with healthcare providers.This study produced a short, age-specific eight item Medication Risk Checklist (LOTTA) to be self-administered by home-dwelling older adults to identify major systemic risks, potential drug-induced symptoms, adherence, and self-management problems related to medication taking.To facilitate the use of the checklist in early detection of potential medication risks, future studies should focus on converting the LOTTA list into electronic form and pilot its use as an integrated part of the electronic patient information system.