Eriksen Ida Iren, Melberg Hans Olav, Bringedal Berit
University of Oslo, Department of Health Management and Health Economics, Oslo, Norway.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 11;8(9):e75218. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075218. eCollection 2013.
The objectives of this study are to measure physicians' knowledge of the prices of pharmaceuticals, and investigate whether there are differences in knowledge of prices between groups of physicians. This article reports on a survey study of physicians' knowledge of the prices of pharmaceuticals conducted on a representative sample of Norwegian physicians in the autumn of 2010. The importance of physicians' knowledge of costs derives from their influence on total spending and allocation of limited health-care resources. Physicians are important drivers in the effort to contain costs in health care, but only if they have the knowledge needed to choose the most cost-effective treatment options. A survey was sent to 1543 Norwegian physicians, asking them for price estimates and their opinions on the importance of considering the cost of treatment to society as a decision factor when treating their patients. This article deals with a subsection in which the physicians were asked to estimate the price of five pharmaceuticals: simvastatin, alendronate (Fosamax), infliximab (Remicade), natalizumab (Tysabri) and escitalopram (Cipralex). The response rate was 65%. For all the five pharmaceuticals, more than 50% and as many as 83% gave responses that differed more than 50% from the actual drug price. The price of more expensive pharmaceuticals was underestimated, while the opposite was the case for less expensive medicines. The data show that physicians in general have poor knowledge of the prices of the pharmaceuticals they offer their patients. However, the physicians who frequently deal with a drug have better knowledge of its price than those who do not handle a medication as often. The data also suggest that those physicians who agree that cost of care to society is an important decision factor have better knowledge of drug prices.
本研究的目的是衡量医生对药品价格的了解程度，并调查不同医生群体在价格知识方面是否存在差异。本文报道了一项于2010年秋季对挪威医生的代表性样本进行的关于医生对药品价格了解情况的调查研究。医生了解成本的重要性源于他们对总支出和有限医疗资源分配的影响。医生是控制医疗保健成本努力中的重要推动因素，但前提是他们具备选择最具成本效益治疗方案所需的知识。向1543名挪威医生发送了一份调查问卷，询问他们对价格的估计以及他们对在治疗患者时将治疗成本对社会的影响作为决策因素的重要性的看法。本文涉及其中一个子部分，在该部分中，要求医生估计五种药品的价格：辛伐他汀、阿仑膦酸钠（福善美）、英夫利昔单抗（类克）、那他珠单抗（泰萨比）和艾司西酞普兰（喜普妙）。回复率为65%。对于所有这五种药品，超过50%，多达83%的回复与实际药品价格相差超过50%。较昂贵药品的价格被低估，而较便宜药品则相反。数据表明，医生总体上对他们给患者开的药品价格了解不足。然而，经常处理某种药品的医生比不经常处理该药品的医生对其价格了解得更好。数据还表明，那些认同医疗成本对社会是一个重要决策因素的医生对药品价格了解得更好。
