Lam Yasmin, McCrindle Rachel, Hui Terence K L, Sherratt R Simon, Donyai Parastou
Reading School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AP, UK.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY, UK.
Pharmacy (Basel). 2021 Jul 21;9(3):128. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy9030128.
A number of studies have examined beliefs about medicines reuse. Although the practice is prohibited in UK community pharmacy, it does take place elsewhere in the world where it relies on visual checks of returned medicines as an indicator of their quality. One proposal is to integrate sensor technology onto medication packaging as a marker of their quality instead. Our aim was to gauge people's beliefs about medicines reuse, in an experiment, with or without sensor technology and with or without the promise of visual checks completed by a pharmacist, as experimental conditions, should the practice be sanctioned in the UK in the future.
A between participant study was designed with two independent factors testing the hypothesis that sensors and visual checks would increase pro-medicines-reuse beliefs. A questionnaire was used to measure medicines reuse beliefs and collect qualitative comments.
Eighty-one participants took part. Attitudes toward medication offered for reuse, participants' perceived social pressure to accept the medication, and their intention to take part in medicines reuse all increased with the presence of sensors on packaging and with the promise of pharmacist visual checking, with the former causing a greater increase than the latter, and the combination of both making the greatest increase. People's qualitative comments explained their concerns about medicines reuse, validating the findings. The use of sensors on medication packaging warrants further investigation if regulators are to consider approving medicines reuse in the UK.
许多研究探讨了关于药品再利用的观念。尽管在英国社区药房这种做法是被禁止的，但在世界其他地方确实存在，在这些地方，药品再利用依赖于对退回药品的外观检查来判断其质量。一种提议是将传感器技术集成到药品包装上，以此作为药品质量的标识。我们的目的是在一个实验中，以未来英国是否批准药品再利用为背景，研究人们在有或没有传感器技术、有或没有药剂师进行外观检查承诺的情况下，对药品再利用的观念。
设计了一项受试者间研究，有两个独立因素，以检验传感器和外观检查会增加支持药品再利用观念这一假设。使用一份问卷来测量对药品再利用的观念并收集定性评论。
81名参与者参与了研究。对于提供再利用的药品的态度、参与者感知到的接受该药品的社会压力以及他们参与药品再利用的意愿，都随着包装上有传感器以及有药剂师外观检查的承诺而增加，前者的影响大于后者，两者结合时影响最大。人们的定性评论解释了他们对药品再利用的担忧，证实了研究结果。如果监管机构要考虑在英国批准药品再利用，那么在药品包装上使用传感器值得进一步研究。
