Perception of generic prescription drugs and utilization of generic drug discount programs.

OBJECTIVE

Our study aimed to assess patient's perceptions of generic drugs and utilization of generic drug discount programs.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A survey was administered to adult participants at community health centers and community-based organizations in Houston, Texas, USA (n=525).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Multivariate logistic regression was used to quantify the strength of association between generic drug perception and utilization of generic drug discount programs.

RESULTS

Respondents who agreed that "Generic prescription drugs are as effective as brand name prescription drugs," were 3 times as likely to utilize generic drug discount programs (AOR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.8-4.8, P<.001). Compared to non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans (OR: 10.2; 95% CI: 1.4-76.4) and Hispanics (OR: 10.3; 95% CI: 1.3-79.4) were 10 times as likely to agree that generic drugs have more side effects than brand name drugs.

CONCLUSION

Race/ethnicity had no impact in utilization of generic drug discount programs, despite racial disparities in perception toward generic drugs' side effects and generic drugs being inferior to brand name drugs.