Section of Hygiene Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Experimental and Applied Medicine, University of Brescia , Brescia, Italy.
Telemed J E Health. 2009 Dec;15(10):1022-5. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2009.0069.
Many online pharmacies that serve as a substitute for original or personal medical prescriptions use a health questionnaire for consumers to complete on their Web site for buying prescription-only medicines. A content analysis of online medical questionnaires from a sample of online pharmacies (OPs) examined their completeness. Fifty-seven questionnaires were identified in which online pharmacies sought health status assessment from online purchasers. To evaluate the questionnaires, a checklist tallied their characteristics, including general features, medical history requested, and involvement of the consumer's doctor. Drug allergies were queried in 55 OPs (96.5%) and other allergies in 40 (70.2%). All of the questionnaires asked whether the consumer had suffered or was currently suffering from a particular illness, but a question about past surgery was present in 23 sites (40.3%) only; 40 sites (70.2%) asked women if they were pregnant or breastfeeding. Only 30 pharmacies out of 57 (52.6%) asked if the consumer's family doctor was aware of his/her intention of buying online and an even lower percentage (19.3%) asked if the purchase was based on a medical diagnosis rendered by a physician. Less than 20% of the pharmacies asked for the name, address, or telephone number of the consumer's family doctor. The results confirm the inadequacy of online pharmacy medical questionnaires in the assessment of health status for prescribing drugs. The results suggest that these questionnaires aim more at giving the consumer a false sense of health assurance than performing an effective assessment of his or her health status relative to the drug purchase.
许多在线药店作为原始或个人医疗处方的替代品,在其网站上为消费者使用健康问卷来购买处方药。本研究对来自在线药店样本的在线医疗问卷进行内容分析,以检查其完整性。在寻求在线购买者健康状况评估的 57 份问卷中,识别出在线药店。为了评估问卷,检查表统计了它们的特征,包括一般特征、所请求的病史以及消费者医生的参与。在 55 个在线药店(96.5%)中询问了药物过敏情况,在 40 个在线药店(70.2%)中询问了其他过敏情况。所有问卷都询问消费者是否患有或正在患有某种特定疾病,但只有 23 个网站(40.3%)询问了过去的手术情况;40 个网站(70.2%)询问女性是否怀孕或哺乳期。在 57 家在线药店中,只有 30 家(52.6%)询问消费者的家庭医生是否知道他/她购买在线的意图,甚至更少的比例(19.3%)询问购买是否基于医生的医疗诊断。不到 20%的药店询问消费者家庭医生的姓名、地址或电话号码。研究结果证实了在线药店在评估开具药物的健康状况方面的医疗问卷的不足。结果表明,这些问卷更多的是给消费者一种虚假的健康保证感,而不是对他或她的健康状况相对于药物购买进行有效的评估。