An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method Evaluation Of General Practitioners, Pharmacists, Consumers And Pharmacy Students' Knowledge, Perception And Attitude On Contemporary Issues Surrounding Generic Medicine Use In Karachi, Pakistan
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Date
2011-07
Authors
Jamshed, Shazia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Developing countries are struggling with the high cost of treatment and Pakistan is
not an exception to this issue. Generic medicines could be instrumental in curtailing
the cost of treatment and reduce healthcare expenditures in Pakistan. Therefore, it is
imperative to ascertain the knowledge, perception and attitudes of different
stakeholders in this regard. The study used a sequential mixed-method research in
which the qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied. The qualitative data
was collected through in-depth semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with general
practitioners, pharmacists, consumers, and pharmacy students. Saturation point, a
peak after which no new information was sought from additional interviews, was
achieved at 11 for doctors, 11 for pharmacists, 29 for consumers and 28 for
pharmacy students. A combination of a priori themes and emergent themes from
content analysis identified gaps in knowledge of generic medicines among general
practitioners, consumers, and pharmacy students. Likewise, in terms of perception
and attitude, with the exception of students the opinions of all the stakeholders seem
to be divided. The questionnaires which were formed on the basis of qualitative
results as well as literature search were distributed and collected by hand after
pretested and validated; except for consumers wherein interview-administered
instrument was used. Four separate survey questionnaires were used in the
quantitative part of the study. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics were
performed in each part of the study. A priori significance level of 0.05 was used.
The survey questionnaire for general practitioners was distributed to 289 GPs. A total
of 206 GPs (71.3%) completed the survey. More than 70% (n=148; 71.8%) of the
general practitioners showed correct understanding that generic medicines are copy
of the brand name medicines. General practitioners expressed good perception and
attitude towards generic medicine prescribing.
Description
Keywords
Generic medicines could be instrumental , healthcare expenditures in Pakistan