University of Antwerp, Toxicological Centre, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium.
Department of In Vitro Toxicology and Dermato-cosmetology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Jette, Belgium.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Sep 30;22(1):1216. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08596-w.
A longstanding debate exists about including a 'reason for use' on prescriptions for medication. Little is known, however, about patients' opinions on this subject.
An internet-based questionnaire, consisting mainly of Likert scale questions, was distributed online to the general public in Belgium. Results from 1034 responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Opinions from patients toward including a 'reason for use' on medication prescriptions were generally positive. A clear majority of 62% increased to 74% after providing information about the possible link between indication and medication dose. A majority of the participants expressed a positive attitude regardless of the pathology involved, although sexually transmitted diseases were of greatest concern. Other important aspects differentiating the opinion positively was the transmission of this information in an electronic-only form and limiting it to the regular pharmacist excluding further use by third parties such as other pharmacies or insurance companies. Patients using multiple medicines and those frequenting the same pharmacy also had a more favorable opinion about including the reason for use. In addition, analysis of physician and pharmacist questionnaire responses, explicitly excluded from the main analysis, confirmed the known contrasting opinions in these subgroups.
Patients have strong support for transferring information on the 'reason for use' of their prescriptions to their regular pharmacy if this is done in a secure and privacy-conscious way enabling increased patient safety and improved pharmaceutical care.
长期以来，关于在药物处方上注明“用药理由”一直存在争议。然而，人们对此知之甚少。
主要由李克特量表问题组成的基于互联网的问卷在比利时向公众在线分发。使用描述性统计方法分析了来自 1034 个回复的结果。
患者对在药物处方上注明“用药理由”的意见普遍较为积极。在提供了关于指示与药物剂量之间可能存在联系的信息后，这一比例从 62%增加到了 74%。大多数参与者无论涉及何种疾病，都持积极态度，尽管性传播疾病最为令人关注。其他重要的区别因素是，以电子形式传递这些信息并将其限制在常规药剂师范围内，排除了其他第三方（如其他药店或保险公司）的进一步使用。同时，使用多种药物和经常光顾同一家药店的患者对注明用药理由的意见也更为积极。此外，对医生和药剂师问卷回复的分析（明确排除在主要分析之外）证实了这些亚组中已知的相反意见。
如果以安全和注重隐私的方式将处方的“用药理由”信息转交给患者的常规药房，患者会强烈支持，这将提高患者安全性并改善药物治疗。
