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- Mårdby, Ann-Charlotte, 1976, et al.
(author)
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Beliefs about medicines among prospective and current pharmacy personnel
- 2004
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In: 1st Nordic Social Pharmacy and Health Services Research Conference.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background According to earlier reports only 50 % of all patients are adherent to their medications. Increased adherence to medicines can reduce costs for society due to less hospitalization and sick leave (1). Beliefs about medicines are linked to adherence (2). Improved knowledge about beliefs may lead to new interventions aiming to capture misunderstandings, improve patients’ knowledge about medicines and thereby enhance their adherence. Objective To analyse beliefs about medicines among Swedish university students and pharmacy personnel. Method Beliefs about medicines questionnaire (BMQ) was used in two studies to analyze prospective and current pharmacy personnel in the autumn 2003. One study included first year students at Göteborg University (n=455); students in pharmacy, pharmaceutical bioscience, dispensing pharmacy, medicine, nursing and finance/accounting. The other study examined pharmacists, dispensing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at 24 community pharmacies in Göteborg (n=306). BMQ is divided in a specific- and a general part. The general part was used here and measured beliefs in medicines’ harmful effects (General-Harm), beliefs in doctors’ over-prescribing (General-Overuse) and beliefs in medicines’ beneficial effects (General-Benefit) (3). Results A majority of the students were women and younger than 25 years. For all courses, the mean was over 4.0 for General-Benefit and below 2.5 for General-Harm. Pharmacy students had a significantly higher General-Overuse than students in medicine, dispensing pharmacy and finance/accounting. Over half of the pharmacy personnel were 45 years or older, had worked in a pharmacy at least 20 years and were dispensing pharmacists, respectively. As a whole, pharmacy personnel had means over 4.0 for General-Benefit and below 2.0 for General-Harm. Those who had worked in a pharmacy for 20-24 and 30-34 years had significantly lower mean for General-Harm than those who had worked for 0-4 years. Prospective and current dispensing pharmacists had the highest mean for General-Benefit and the lowest mean for General-Harm. Discussion Prospective and current pharmacy personnel saw medicines as beneficial rather than harmful. The study on pharmacy personnel showed that experience rather than education affected beliefs about medicines harmful effects. Students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and dispensing pharmacy had similar beliefs about medicines. This may facilitate future team work as professionals, were they should be encouraged to discuss how to detect non-adherence, motivate patients in future treatments and how to use two-way communication with their patients. Pharmacy personnel have a positive view on medicines, and a study has shown that they dominate the communication at the counter (4). If pharmacy personnel assume that the client has the same beliefs about medicines as themselves, communication can be affected and questions important for the client might not be brought up. Conclusions Future and current pharmacy personnel considered medicines as beneficial and not very harmful. Future studies will answer if education can influence beliefs, and to what extent clients’ beliefs about medicines differ from those of the personnel.
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| 2. |
- Mårdby, Ann-Charlotte, 1976, et al.
(author)
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University students’ beliefs about medicines
- 2004
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In: Psychology & Health. ; 19:supplement, s. 165-166
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective To investigate Swedish university students’ beliefs about medicines. Method Data was collected with Beliefs about medicine questionnaire (BMQ) among 642 registered first year students at Göteborg University in the autumn 2003. The students were studying pharmacy, medicine, nursing, dispensing pharmacy, pharmaceutical bioscience or finance/accounting. BMQ is divided in a specific- and a general part. The general part was used here and measured beliefs in medicines’ harmful effects (General-Harm), beliefs in doctors’ over-prescribing (General-Overuse) and beliefs in medicines’ beneficial effects (General-Benefit). Results The response-rate was 71.6 %. A majority of the students were women and younger than 25 years. Almost 85 % had prior experience with prescription medicines, 90.0 % with over-the-counter medicines and 37.4 % with herbal medicines. More women than men currently used medicines. Pharmacy students had a significantly higher General-Harm than students in medicine, dispensing pharmacy and finance/accounting. Mean values of BMQ was similar for students in pharmacy and pharmaceutical bioscience. Students in medicine and dispensing pharmacy had comparable means for the different subparts. All courses had high (>4.0) General-Benefit and a General-Harm below 3.0. Women had significantly higher General-Harm than men. General-Benefit showed that first year students in the university thought medicines were beneficial. Pharmacy students saw the largest risk with medicines and thought doctors often over-prescribed medicines. Students in medicine, nursing and dispensing pharmacy will have the most patient-related work. The results show that students in medicine and dispensing pharmacy have a higher confidence in medicines compared to nursing students. Conclusions First year students at the university think medicines are beneficial and not very harmful. Can university educations with focus on medicine and caring change beliefs in medicines?
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